Quality of Care Training Organized by TRDP Entrepreneurs in Health Program for Practicing Physicians

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In May 2017, the American University of Armenia (AUA) Gerald and Patricia Turpanjian School of Public Health (SPH) conducted a Quality of Care (QC) training for physicians practicing in rural Armenia within the scope of the Entrepreneurs in Healthcare (EIH) project. EIH is a component of the Turpanjian Rural Development Program (TRDP). 

Training participants were practicing physicians from TRDP who wanted to enlarge already established healthcare centers, as well as those who wanted to open and operate quality private health practices in rural areas. Overall, 10 physicians from seven regions of the Republic of Armenia and the Artsakh Republic completed the QC training course.

The training course was developed by the EIH experts based on the review of international and local experience. The course introduced the core principles of healthcare quality improvement, including Donabedian’s model of quality assessment, continuous quality improvement cycle, quality improvement tools, and reviewed quality improvement case studies from other countries and experiences in Armenia.

QA trainings were conducted by experts in the field, Drs. Murad Kirakosyan and Garnik Harutyunyan. Dr. Kirakosyan taught the course on quality of care and Dr. Harutyunyan covered the financial issues, development of financial reports, and the process of getting a license for medical activity and getting financial resources from the State Health Agency. Vahe Kazandjian, MPH, PhD, made a guest lecturing on the quality indicators via Skype.

The participants greatly valued the training sessions in their evaluations, writing:

“It is a very effective and important training.”

“It was a very interesting training course. During the training I recalled my knowledge on accounting.”

“The training course was well organized.”

The main objective of the EIH program is to increase access to quality health services in rural areas of Armenia through facilitation of innovation and entrepreneurship in the healthcare sector including interventions that help young physicians and other health practitioners to open and operate quality private health practices in rural areas of Armenia.

The AUA Gerald and Patricia Turpanjian School of Public Health works actively to improve population health and health services in Armenia and the region through interdisciplinary education and development of public health professionals to be leaders in public health, health services research and evaluation, and health care delivery and management.