• Improving quality of care

Improving quality of care

This article from BMC Health Services Research examines the relationship between the quality of family planning services and the use of intrauterine devices (IUDs) in Egypt. There is general agreement that the quality of family planning and reproductive health services positively affects contraceptive use and behaviour of patients; and that patients deserve to receive safe and high quality services with respect and dignity. The paper discusses indicators used to measure quality of care including: choice of methods; information given to clients; client-provider interpersonal relations; mechanisms to ensure follow-up and continuity; respecting client’s privacy; and tailoring counselling to meet clients needs.

The paper finds that IUD use among women who obtained their contraceptive method from public sources was positively associated with quality of family planning services, and independent of distance to the facility, facility type, age, number of children, education level, household wealth status and residence. In particular quality of services related to counselling and examination room had strong positive effects on the use of IUD. The paper concludes that service quality is an important determinant of use of clinical contraceptive methods in Egypt. Improving quality of family planning services may help further increase use of clinical contraceptive methods and reduce fertility.

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