28 Implementing of WSM 1.0 in 160 health facilities across Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

BackgroundAs part of its Vision 2030, the Kingdom’s Ministry of Health (MOH) has undertaken a transformational initiative to achieve triple-aim objectives (improve health outcomes, enhance the quality of care and reduce the cost of care). IHI’s Whole Systems Measures approach to performance measurement aligns with all three objectives and, therefore, was selected by the Statistics and Information Management Department to assist health decision-makers to monitor and improve health outcomes and quality of care.ObjectivesThis WSM implementation was focused on developing internal capabilities at the facility-level to collect and report data, enabling the MOH’s Statistics and Information Management Department to analyze and report the data using interactive dashboards to facilitate strategic decision making, benchmark and compare the performance of health facilities and health clusters locally and internationally, identify areas of improvement, and provide the necessary support to improve health outcomes.MethodsAs a pilot, this initiative was implemented in 80 hospitals and 80 PHCs. The facilities were purposely selected to represent all regions and sizes of healthcare facilities (based on the number of beds). Hospital-staff was trained on data collection, while directorate-staff was trained on supervision and data validation. Data were collected over ten months from May ‘19 to Feb ‘20 and was reported monthly.Results83% of hospitals and 73% of PHCs have participated and shared reliable data for WSM indicators monthly. Throughout this period, indicators such as ‘rate of adverse events,’ and ‘reported patient satisfaction scores,’ have displayed improvement, while others were broadly consistent.ConclusionsBy implementing the WSM approach, the MOH has provided experiential learning for its staff at the facility, directorate, and central levels. Data were regularly analyzed, reported, and used for strategic decision making and supporting evidence-based health practices.