The Impact of Community Score Card Strategy in Improving Quality Health Services. The Case Study of Shamva District
- April 25, 2019
- Posted by: RSIS
- Category: Social Science
International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume III, Issue IV, April 2019 | ISSN 2454–6186
Olivia Gumbo
Zimbabwe Open University, Zimbabwe
Abstract: – Zimbabwe health sector focusses more on treating diseases rather than preventing disease out breaks. There have been several diseases out breaks such as cholera, typhoid and other diarrheal related diseases. Zimbabweans face challenges to combat communicable diseases such as tuberculosis, diarrheal diseases, and HIV/AIDS. The country’s health sector decentralisation implementation is moving at a snail’s speed, triggering complaints of unsatisfactory service delivery at rural health centres. The study examined the impact of community score card in improving quality health services in Shamva District. The study sought to understand how community scorecard strategy was implemented in Shamva District, to empower the communities with health rights for them to be able to demand suitable health services. The study was guided by interpretive and critical post-modernist paradigms. Qualitative methodology utilised open-ended questionnaires, focus group discussions, key informant interviews and participant observation data generation tools. The data generated were analysed using grounded theory. The key findings are that community scorecard improved health rights knowledge of communities in Shamva District, this led them to demand quality services from nurses. The study concluded that lack of continuous funding and sustainable plans had led to the reversal of positive results that the community score card programme had made. The major recommendation is that government provides adequate human, financial and physical resources for successful implementation of SAcc in Shamva District Health Sector.
Key words: Community score card, health services, accountability, community representatives, empowerment.
I. INTRODUCTION
The study was conducted in Shamva District in a bid to understand whether community scorecard strategy is improving quality health services. The paper covers the back ground to the problem, statement of the problem, the purpose of the study, objectives of the study and research questions. The paper further covers the methodology, data analysis, discussion and presentation. The major findings, conclusions and recommendations are also given. The background to the problem is given below.
