6021.2: Thursday, October 25, 2001 - 9:15 AM

Abstract #26727

Using COPEŽ and performance improvement for community involvement

Erin Mielke, Quality Improvement, AVSC International, 440 Ninth Avenue, New York, NY 10001, 212-561-8061, emielke@avsc.org

COPEŽ is a continuous quality improvement process for all levels of health care staff and supervisors to improve the quality of their services. In 1988, AVSC International developed the COPE process and tools to improve the quality of family planning services at the site level. Since then, AVSC has adapted the tools to assess a wider range of health services, and more recently, applied the process towards building partnerships between health care staff and community members to better meet the community's health needs. The community involvement process was piloted in East Africa in 1998, and site level changes in quality of care have been documented related to client-provider interaction, the organization of work, cleanliness and privacy. At a broader level, changes in community/health care staff communications and perspectives of each other were also documented. This presentation will describe the process and results from the pilot, and then show how the Community COPE process works within the Performance Improvement process at the site level.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, the participants will be able to: 1. Describe the COPE process for community involvement 2. Identify five results from this process. 3. Articulate how the Community COPE process works within the larger Performance Improvement approach at the site level.

Keywords: Quality, Family Planning

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: AVSC International
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: employment

The 129th Annual Meeting of APHA