Effects of a collaborative approach to documentation of care for people living with HIV (PLWHIV) in Côte d'Ivoire.

The aim of this project implemented in 37 treatment settings for PLWHIV in Côte d'Ivoire was to improve the documentation of the provision of their care through a collaborative approach. This study aims to evaluate the impact of this approach. This descriptive cross-sectional study took place from July to September 2011 and focused on the documentation of care provided to PLWHIV at 32 sites according to the collaborative approach for improving care and services that was introduced from January 2009 to June 2010. We found that the documentation was improved at these sites because of the collaborative approach. The documentation quality indicator rose from less than 20% at the beginning of the project to about 85% at the end. This improvement differed according to facilities' level on the health pyramid. Primary health facilities improved more than general or regional hospitals because the former used the data documented for making decisions about how to improve their quality. On the other hand, the archiving of the files was faulty (lack of space in the cabinets and absence of data managers in all the sites). The collaborative approach method should to be extended to other health facilities in the country to improve the documentation of health activities to improve patient welfare.