ArticlePLOS global public health2023
Improving the quality of COVID-19 care in Sierra Leone: A modified Delphi process and serial nationwide assessments of quality of COVID-19 care in Sierra Leone.
Article in PLOS global public health, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Evolution of health system resources and factors associated with the quality of care for epidemic-prone diseases in Guinea: a national cross-sectional study.Frontiers in epidemiology · 2026Article
- Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
introductionImproving the quality of care that patients receive is paramount to improving patient outcomes and engendering trust during infectious disease outbreaks. Whilst Quality Improvement (QI) is well established to drive improvement in routine care and in health systems, there are fewer reports of its use during infectious disease outbreaks.
methodsA modified Delphi process was undertaken to create a standardized assessment tool for the quality of COVID-19 care in Sierra Leone. Four rounds of assessment were undertaken between July 2020 and July 2021. To assess change across the four assessment periods compared to baseline we used a mixed effects model and report coefficients and p values.
resultsDuring the Delphi process, 12/14 participants selected the domains to be assessed within the tool. The final 50 questions included 13 outcome questions, 17 process questions and 20 input questions. A total of 94 assessments were undertaken over four assessment periods at 27 facilities. An increase of 8.75 (p = <0.01) in total score was seen in round 2, 10.67 (p = <0.01) in round 3 and 2.17 (p = 0.43) in round 4 compared to baseline. Mean cumulative scores for COVID-19 Treatment Centres were higher than Hospital Isolation Units (p<0.02) at all four timepoints. Significant improvements were reported in coordination, diagnostics, staffing, infection prevention and control (IPC), nutrition, and vulnerable populations domains, but not in the oxygen, care processes, infrastructure and drugs domains.
conclusionWe demonstrate the feasibility of creating a quality of care assessment tool and conducting sequential nationwide assessments during an infectious disease outbreak. We report significant improvements in quality-of-care scores in round 2 and round 3 compared to baseline, however, these improvements were not sustained. We recommend the use of QI and the creation of standardised assessment tools to improve quality of care during outbreak responses.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.