Example of Quality of Maternal and Pediatric Care Measurements

Quality of care is the ability of health services provided to individuals and populations to improve desired health outcomes. To achieve this goal, care must be safe, effective, timely, efficient, equitable, and person-centered. Most maternal deaths that occur in high-burden countries result primarily from five morbidities: severe hemorrhage, hypertension, sepsis, unsafe abortion, and dystocia; and the leading causes of child death are neonatal causes (complications of prematurity, birth asphyxia, and neonatal infections), pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, and malnutrition. These deaths are "mostly preventable" because the necessary medical interventions exist and are well known. However, the main obstacles are lack of access to care and poor quality of care for mothers and newborns in health facilities during pregnancy, childbirth, and the early postnatal period, as well as inadequate care for seriously ill children under age five.