Abstract
Women’s perception of quality of care has a decisive impact on health-seeking behavior. This chapter reveals how mobile technology can be utilized to improve health care by creating a feedback system to draw from women’s perception of quality of care in service delivery at health facilities. The chapter registers how piloting a Mobile Monitor for Quality of Care (MoM-QC)– developed by the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood, India (WRAI), led by its secretariat organization, Centre for Catalyzing Change (formerly CEDPA India), Merck for Mothers, a health initiative of the global pharmaceutical company Merck, and the mobile technology firm Gram Vaani (meaning “voice of the village”)– in 20 villages in the Indian state of Jharkhand with the support of the government of Jharkhand, became a successful, fully crowdsourced reserve of information on health facilities for use by women. The chapter also highlights how MoM-QC improved users’ knowledge of their entitlements as well as quality of maternal care by firstly educating women on the maternal care they should expect and demand and the entitlements they are eligible to, secondly providing women with a forum to record their experiences based on recognized, evidence-based standards and share this data with communities to help them seek high-quality providers, and finally creating a forum to promote sharing of actionable data with providers in a way that would help drive quality improvements.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood was launched in 1999 as an informal coalition of NGOs, donors, and their global partners, with a view to generate worldwide attention and make safe motherhood a priority for all.
- 2.
The Centre for Catalyzing Change is a nongovernment organization registered under the Societies Registration Act , 1860. Its mission is to empower women in all sectors of development. At the core of its work and approach is a belief that achieving gender equality is essential for development, democracy, and global progress.
- 3.
The authors would like to thank Sanjay Paul, Deepa Jha, and Mohammad Ahsan from Centre for Catalyzing Change, and Aaditeshwar Seth from Gram Vaani and M4ID for their contributions to this work. Gratitude is also due toward the team of Nav Bharat Jagriti Kendra, the women from the community, and the Government of Jharkhand.
- 4.
Although the average basic literacy in the state is 65% (as compared to the national average of 74%), the Annual Status of Education Report for Jharkhand (ASER, 2014) reveals that literacy and numeracy level achieved is much lower than the desired level at respective grades. For example, among children in the eighth grade, 1% cannot read/recognize letters, 3.6% can read letters but not more, 8.4% can read words but not first-grade-level text or higher, 16.7% can read first-grade-level text but not second-grade-level text, and only 70.4% of children in the eighth grade can read second-grade-level text.
References
Acharya, B. L., & Cleland, J. (2000). Maternal and child health services in rural Nepal: Does access or quality matter more? Health Policy and Planning, 15(2), 223–229.
Ager, A., & Pepper, K. (2005). Patterns of health service utilization and perceptions of needs and services in rural Orissa. Health Policy and Planning, 20(3), 176–184.
Akin, J. S., & Hutchinson, P. (1999). Health-care facility choice and the phenomenon of bypassing. Health Policy and Planning, 14, 135–151.
Alden, D. L., Hoa, D. M., & Bhawuk, D. (2004). Client satisfaction with reproductive health-care quality: Integrating business approaches to modelling and measurement. Social Science and Medicine, 59, 2219–2232.
Choi, K. S., Cho, W. H., Lee, S., Lee, H., & Kim, C. (2004). The relationships among quality, value, satisfaction and behavioral intention in health care provider choice: A south Korean study. Journal of Business Research, 5, 913–921.
Haddad, S., Fournier, P., Machouf, N., & Yatara, F. (1998). What does quality mean to lay people? Community perceptions of primary care services in Guinea. Social Science and Medicine, 47, 381–394.
India Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. (2015). Health and family welfare statistics in India. Govt. of India. Retrieved December 23, 2016, from https://nrhm-mis.nic.in/SitePages/Pub-FW-Statistics2015.aspx.
India Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. (2014). Reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health program annual report. Govt. of India. Retrieved December 23, 2016, from http://www.mohfw.nic.in/WriteReadData/l892s/5665895455663325.pdf.
India Office of Registrar General, Sample Registration System. (2016). Special bulletin on maternal mortality in India 2010–12. Retrieved June 29, 2016, from http://www.censusindia.gov.in/vital_statistics/SRS_Bulletins/MMR_Bulletin-2010-12.pdf.
Khan, K. S., Wojdyla, D., Say, L., Gülmezoglu, A. M., & Van Look, P. F. (2006). WHO analysis of causes of maternal death: A systematic review. Lancet, 367(9516), 1066–1074.
Nair, H., & Panda, R. (2011). Quality of maternal healthcare in India: Has the National Rural Health Mission made a difference? Journal of Global Health, 1(1), 79–86.
Salaza, M., Vora, K., & Costa, A. D. (2016). Bypassing health facilities for childbirth: A multilevel study in three districts of Gujarat, India. Global Health Action, 9(9), 32178.
Sanneving, L., Trygg, N., Saxena, D., Mavalankar, D., & Thomsen, S. (2013). Inequity in India: The case of maternal and reproductive health. Global Health Action, 6, 19145.
Say, L., Chou, D., Gemmill, A., Tunçalp, Ö., Moller, A. B., Daniels, J. D., ... Alkema, L. (2014). Global causes of maternal death: A WHO systematic analysis. Lancet Global Health, 2(6), e323–e333. doi:10.1016/S2214-109X(14)70227-X.
Sharma, K. D. (2012). Implementing quality process in public sector hospitals in India: The journey begins. Indian Journal of Community Medicine, 37(3), 150–152.
Thaddeus, S., & Maine, D. (1994). Too far to walk: Maternal mortality in context. Social Science and Medicine, 38(8), 1091–1110.
UNICEF. (2005). Coverage evaluation survey, all India report. New Delhi.
UNICEF. (2009). Coverage evaluation survey. Govt. of India, New Delhi. Retrieved December 23, 2016, from http://hshrc.gov.in/wp-content/uploads/National_Fact_Sheet_CES_2009.pdf.
UNICEF. (2016). Trends in maternal mortality: 1990 to 2010. WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA and The World Bank estimates. Retrieved June 29, 2016, from https://www.unfpa.org/webdav/site/global/shared/documents/publications/2012/Trends_in_maternal_mortality_A4-1.pdf.
World Health Organization. (2000). The World health report 2000—Health systems: Improving performance. Geneva: WHO.
Suggested Reading
Austin, A., Langer, A., Salam, R. A., Lassi, Z. S., Das, J. K., & Bhutta, Z. A. (2014). Approaches to improve the quality of maternal and newborn health care: An overview of the evidence. Reproductive Health, 11(2), S1.
Noordam, A. C., Kuepper, B. M., Stekelenburg, J., & Milen, A. (2011). Improvement of maternal health services through the use of mobile phones. Tropical Medicine & International Health, 16(5), 622–626.
Say, L., Chou, D., Gemmill, A., Tunçalp, Ö., Moller, A. B., Daniels, J., … & Alkema, L. (2014). Global causes of maternal death: A WHO systematic analysis. The Lancet Global Health, 2(6), e323–e333.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Gogoi, A., Katoch, M., Agrawal, P. (2018). Empowering Women in India to Influence Maternal Healthcare Quality Through Mobile Phones and Crowdsourcing. In: Choudhury, S., Erausquin, J., Withers, M. (eds) Global Perspectives on Women's Sexual and Reproductive Health Across the Lifecourse. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60417-6_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60417-6_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-60416-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-60417-6
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)