Evaluating the Quality of Care for Sexually Transmitted Infections using DISCA (District STI Clinic Assessment)

The purpose of this report

As part of the National STI Initiative's baseline assessments of three health districts 1 , a DISCA evaluation was carried out in each of three health districts. Results from these districts showed that the instrument was acceptable and easy to use with some training. The objectives of the training were to motivate supervisors to discover the value of the DISCA tool in assessing quality of care and to stress the importance of accurate information. Of the 53 DISCA assessment forms distributed to clinics, 48 were completed and returned.

The data was entered and analyzed both manually and using a statistical software programme called Epi-Info 6.04 (Centres for Disease Control Atlanta).

This information can be used by District Management Teams to outline an action plan to address shortcomings and improve the quality of care.

By comparing the three health districts with each other, we show how the DISCA tool can be useful to a province or to a regional manager who can compare and contrast the quality of care provided by different health districts. This allows managers and supervisors at higher levels of the health system to target health districts that provide poor standards of care.

This report first presents the individual findings from each district one by one, and this is then followed by a comparison of the three health districts. This format has been chosen in order to highlight both the use of the tool for individual districts and to illustrate how comparisons across districts can be made.

This report has been written for the purpose of sharing, the process, results and interpretation of the DISCA assessment with a view to using it as an ongoing tool for monitoring and evaluation.