Implementation and evaluation of a collaborative quality improvement program to improve immunization rate and reduce missed opportunities for vaccination in primary health-care facilities: a time series study in Kano, Nigeria

Abstract

ABSTRACTBackground: The authors aimed to implement a quality improvement (QI) collaborative in primary health care (PHC) facilities in Nassarawa Local Government Area of Kano, Nigeria, to reduce missed opportunities for vaccination (MOV) among children aged 0–23 months.Research design and methods: Plausibility evaluation design was used in this study. Frontline health workers from five purposively selected PHC facilities used divergent-convergent thinking to select change ideas. Change ideas were implemented in two plan-do-study-act cycles that were 4 weeks apart. Statistical process control using P-chart was used to plot the outcomes over time. Upper and lower control limits were calculated for each p-chart.Results: In the facilities that implemented the QI program, the average percentage of MOV in the pre-implementation period was 31.7% with an upper control limit (UCL) of 44.5% and lower control limit (LCL) of 18.9%. After commencing QI implementation, data points stabilized as all points were within the control limits. Improvement was more evident in PHC 1 and 5.Conclusions: The findings from this study suggest that frontline health workers are capable of tailoring change ideas to their local context to generate context-specific change ideas. It also showed that QI can be used to attain process control in the occurrence of MOV.