Background
Ethiopia’s maternal mortality rate is one of the highest in the world. There are many reasons for this, but one of them is a weak referral system from health centres to hospitals. Gandhi Memorial Hospital in Addis Ababa is a maternity hospital with around 6500 deliveries a year. This hospital has 13 health centres within its catchment area, all of which refer pregnant women and newborns to the hospital when needed. In 2014, this project team evaluated the referral system and found that there were gaps in communication which caused many patients to miss out on the help they need.

About the project
This change project was created to improve the maternity service at Gandhi Memorial Hospital, by strengthening the referral system and communication between the hospital and the health centres in the catchment area. The project team developed a computerized data and recording system, with a user-friendly database where the health workers enter referral protocols. To ensure the implementation of the system, the project team attended monthly meetings with representatives from the hospital and the health centres and provided them with continuous technical support on how to use the database to exchange information.

Results
Before this project, all of the health centers had been using a manual method of data recording and reporting. There was no standard referral protocol when referring pregnant women and newborns to the hospital. After the implementation of this project, 69% of the health centers had started a computerized data recording and reporting system and 84% of the health centers had started using the referral protocol developed by the project team. The number of referrals and the information exchange between the hospitals and the health centres increased significantly by the end of the project.

The project team now plan on extending their model by providing technical support to other health facilities in Ethiopia.

Year: 2015