Helping Babies Survive Programs as an Impetus for Quality Improvement

Abstract

Achieving the ambitious reduction in global neonatal mortality targeted in the Sustainable Development Goals and Every Newborn Action Plan will require reducing geographic disparities in newborn deaths through targeted implementation of evidence-based practices. Helping Babies Survive, a suite of educational programs targeting the 3 leading causes of neonatal mortality, has been commonly used to educate providers in evidence-based practices in low-resource settings. Quality improvement (QI) can play a pivotal role in translating this education into improved care. Measurement of key process and outcome indicators, derived from the algorithms ("Action Plans") central to these training programs, can assist health care providers in understanding the baseline quality of their care, identifying gaps, and assessing improvement. Helping Babies Survive has been the focus of QI programs in Kenya, Nepal, Honduras, and Ethiopia, with critical lessons learned regarding the challenge of measurement, necessity of facility-based QI mentorship and multidisciplinary teams, and importance of systemic commitment to improvement in promoting a culture of QI. Complementing education with QI strategies to identify and close remaining gaps in newborn care will be essential to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and Every Newborn Action Plan targets in the coming decade.