Lacor Hospital: Update

In 2015, the United Nations created 17 goals to tackle climate change, fight inequalities, and eradicate extreme poverty. These 17 Sustainable Development Goals are to be achieved by 2030 and ensure no country is left behind.

The World Bank estimates that developing countries need around $3.9 trillion each year to invest in health and education to achieve these goals. Currently, $1.4 trillion is invested in development each year, which creates a $2.5 trillion deficit. Many countries have adopted results-based financing as a practical approach to funding services and infrastructure to fill this gap.

WHAT IS RESULTS-BASED FINANCING, AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

Results-based financing (RBF) ensures that funding is connected to pre-agreed and verified results and provided only when the desired results are achieved. RBF helps deliver development outcomes, improves accountability, and promotes innovation and efficiency. RBF relies highly on the concept of development impact- how an institution’s work both directly and indirectly effects the community and wider society.

RBF AT LACOR

For the past two years, Lacor Hospital has received funds from the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation through an RBF project in pediatric services. Social Promise began funding an additional RBF project at Lacor Hospital in January of 2020, focusing on women’s and children’s health.

The RBF method assigns a fixed amount of money for each service a patient receives. This figure includes all necessary treatment, regardless of the length of stay and the type of illness. When treatment is verified, Lacor Hospital gets the funds.

In addition to this fixed amount per service, the hospital can earn a bonus based on a score depicting service quality. Patients rate the quality of care they received on a scale from 1 to 5. The higher the score received, the higher the bonus the hospital gets. At Lacor, rewards are distributed equally among all hospital staff to promote equality and encourage all workers to be involved in quality service efforts.

Every three months, members of an internal quality committee and a representative from the Ugandan Ministry of Health visit Lacor to monitor the developed quality and quantity indicators. These indicators examine the structure, reception, spaces, hygiene, disease prevention, adherence of therapies to national protocols, laboratory services efficiency, nurses’ assistance, etc. They range from electrical safety to how the drug cart is organized, from night assistance to cleaning the showers.