The past century of global health interventions has been marked by stunning successes (eg, eradication of smallpox) and disappointing failures (eg, spread of malaria). Life expectancy has generally increased substantially across the globe, yet there remain large populations who suffer from eminently preventable and treatable diseases. Despite the existence of wellestablished, evidence-based int...

Recent attention in health care has been on the actual architectural design of a hospital facility, including its technology and equipment, and its effect on patient safety. To address the problems of errors in health care and serious safety issues, fundamental changes of health care processes, culture, and the physical environment are necessary and need to be aligned, so that the caregivers an...

Skilled birth attendance (SBA) and healthcare facility (HCF) delivery are effective means of reducing maternal mortality. However, their uptake remains low in many low-income countries. The present study utilized semi-structured interviews with 85 pregnant women attending an antenatal clinic in Akwatia, Ghana (May-July 2010) to better understand the barriers to SBA and HCF delivery through the ...

BACKGROUND Patient compliance is a key factor in treatment success. Satisfied patients are more likely to utilize health services, comply with medical treatment, and continue with the health care providers. Yet, the national tuberculosis control program failed to address some of these aspects in order to achieve the national targets. Hence, this study attempted to investigate patient satisfacti...

A pilot eliminating user fees associated with delivery at the point of services was introduced in two districts of Laos in March 2009. Following two years of implementation, an evaluation was conducted to assess the pilot impact, as well as to document the pilot design and implementation challenges. Study results show that, even in the presence of the substantial access and cultural barriers, u...

With tuberculosis now relatively well contained in Japan, it is important to reconfigure treatment systems and structures to ensure the most appropriate treatments in the future. A survey of designated tuberculosis treatment facilities in Hiroshima Prefecture revealed declining standards of tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment as well as decreasing knowledge levels in regional areas, suggesting...

This paper brings together evidence from a number of randomized experiments designed to address the problem of absence of teachers and health providers in developing countries. The goal is to see what, if any, lessons we can draw from them. Our tentative conclusion is that these service providers are willing to respond even to quite moderate incentives. The constraint seems to be in getting the...

Outbreaks of epidemic diseases pose serious public health risks. To overcome the hurdles of sub-optimal disease surveillance reporting from the health facilities to relevant authorities, the Ministry of Health in Kenya piloted mSOS (mobile SMS-based disease outbreak alert system) in 2013-2014. In this paper, we report the results of the qualitative study, which examined factors that influence t...