RGH Video Blog – Importance of Community-Based Services
Hello, welcome to Realizing Global Health. My name is Dr. Elvira Beracochea. I am the president, CEO and founder of Realizing Global Health. I believe that we are here to really make a big difference. We are here to make history and global health is the best way of doing that because we can impact the lives and health of billions of people. How do we do that? By building sustainable, self-reliant health systems that deliver quality health care to everyone everywhere every day.
Today, we are going to talk about more ways to do just that. We have been talking about the basics of global health, the basic foundation including the health system, health programs, health facilities and services, health providers and governance. These are the 5 keys to sustaining global health programs, to sustaining results, and making sure we make a difference that lasts.
We are now going to talk about two elements: community and partnerships- all of the stakeholders that need to work together. If you get these two, plus governance, you will really make sure that you are effective in what you are doing. You will have an impact on all of the people working in global health.
Let’s talk about community today. Community is the 6th element in our 7 elements of building effective global health. Community is a group of living together. They have their own way of doing things, a common history, living in a common geographic area. You will have to determine the coverage area. When you plan services, you have to make sure that the services are community-based, based on the needs of the community and closer to their place of residence. You do not want to put health facilities too far away from the community you are serving otherwise the community may not have access. We have to make services accessible to the community. By understanding how the community lives, works and thinks, then you can provide health services that are more appropriate, acceptable and effective.
What can we do to improve what we are doing in global health to really meet the needs of the community? We need to have certain procedures in place. We need to have an appointment system so people can come and get the help they need without waiting unnecessarily. It always breaks my heart to see long lines of women and children waiting for hours to be seen because there is no appointment system to manage when patients come for services. We need to make sure that the patients are seen and treated with the respect and attention that everybody deserves.
We need to have crowd control. We need to be able to communicate where patients go to check-in or register, where they can wait or not wait. A health facility is not a place where patients can wait anywhere and everywhere. For instance, we know that it is important to keep healthy people and sick people separate to prevent the spread of diseases.
We need to have proper signage. It always amazes me when you go to health facilities and you don’t see signs for registration, reception, or laboratory, etc. Sometimes the signs are so dirty or hard to read and a patient may not understand where to go first. So help people access your health facility in a way that they can easily identify where they need to go and in what order. People come with so many worries and concerns to the health facility and it may be hard for them to understand exactly where to go unless it is very clear. Put yourself in the shoes of your community and find out what would be the best way to serve them.
Think of how you can really make it more accessible to the community. Every time that you think in terms of the community you are going to be able to put new systems in place that it is going to make it easy for them. Start with an appointment system, then proper crowd control and patient flow and finally proper signage. These are a few simple things that not many people talk about because they are so simple and sometime people overlook them. If you pay attention to these three areas you can tremendously improve the quality of health care that you provide to everyone who come through your doors.
Join me next time when we talk about stakeholders, partnerships and how we can put all of these different elements to work together. I hope that you found this video helpful and I welcome your comments and questions. Don’t forget to connect with us of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter as we would love to hear from you. Keep working and moving forward because that is how we realize global health. See you next time!
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