The American University of Armenia (AUA) is pleased to share that in January 2020, Nune Truzyan, Zaruhi Grigoryan, Lusine Musheghyan, and Varduhi Petrosyan from the Avedisian Onanian Center for Health Services Research and Development (CHSR) of the Turpanjian School of Public Health (SPH), and Byron Crape from Nazarbayev University School of Medicine, published the article “Quality of Inpatient Tuberculosis Health Care in High-Burden Resource-Limited Settings: Protocol for a Comprehensive Mixed Methods Assessment Study.” It was published in JMIR Research Protocols, an international peer-reviewed open access journal.
The quality of care for tuberculosis (TB) needs improvement particularly in higher-burden and low-resource countries. Improved quality of care can provide patients with a better quality of life and decrease TB morbidity and mortality. The aim of the study is to develop evaluation instruments for systematically assessing the quality of provided TB services based on international standards and guidelines. The Armenian Medial Fund has provided financial support to AUA SPH for this comprehensive assessment study.
“The comprehensive mixed methods combined qualitative and quantitative approaches to exploring the practices of healthcare professionals at inpatient facilities; treatment experiences of TB patients and their family members; staff practices and facility structural conditions; compliance of TB diagnostic and treatment practices with internal policies and procedures, national and international guidelines and standards. Using the cascade of scoring system, the chosen methodology helps to effectively identify the existing gaps and assess the quality of provided care,” noted Dr. Truzyan.
The methodology described in the article supports the implementation of effective assessments in other countries and could become a basis for developing similar approaches for assessing outpatient TB services in resource-limited countries.
The AUA Turpanjian School of Public Health works actively to improve population health and health services in Armenia and beyond 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.