A facilitated social innovation: stakeholder groups using Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles for perinatal health across levels of the health system in Cao Bang province, Vietnam.

Background: Universal coverage of evidence-based interventions for perinatal health, often part of evidence-based guidelines, could prevent most perinatal deaths, particularly if entire communities were engaged in the implementation. Social innovations may provide creative solutions to the implementation of evidence-based guidelines, but successful use of social innovations relies on the engagement of communities and health system actors. This proof-of-concept study aimed to assess whether an earlier successful social innovation for improved neonatal survival that employed regular facilitated Plan-Do-Study-Act meetings on the commune level was feasible and acceptable when implemented on multiple levels of the health system (52 health units) and resulted in actions with plausibly favourable effects on perinatal health and survival in Cao Bang province, northern Vietnam.