Building a sustainable model to ensure mums have access to high-quality, safe, and affordable and urgent and emergency transport in Kakamega
In Kakamega, around 99% of all pregnant women currently live within 1-hour travel time of an advanced facility, however there is a lack of safe, affordable emergency transport options - especially for women in the lower wealth quintiles. Through a service delivery redesign project, Jacaranda and partners are working on three integrated solutions to; strengthen visibility of gaps in emergency services through data and insights, improve the quality of pre-hospital emergency care through routine training, and ensure sustainability of these solutions by building county capacity for urgent and emergency service coordination and financing.
Read More
Cutting Operational Bottlenecks through Real Time Tracking
Digital technologies have the potential to transform models of care and bring powerful new tools to health providers. Last year, Jacaranda launched a simple blood tracker tool connecting providers needing blood to the closest facilities who could provide it. With 31 facilities now using the tool, we have been asked by providers to adapt it for a wider purpose: inventory management.
Read More
Tackling Health Challenges for the Urban Poor
Jacaranda’s Research Manager Deborah Sambu, and Executive Director Sathy Rajasekharan, share learnings from an ongoing urban health project - Kuboresha Afya Mitaani - and how they are using implementation research to tackle health challenges for the urban poor.
Read More
How Data is Transforming Models of Care
Jacaranda’s Managing Director Nick Pearson joined health innovation leaders in a recent Innovations in Health-hosted webinar to explore how emerging digital technologies like PROMPTS can radically shifting models of care.
Read More
Helpdesk Stories
At the heart of PROMPTS is a dynamic clinical helpdesk team, responsible for answering up to 3,000 questions a day from mums. Questions are flagged via machine learning to the helpdesk who, within an hour, are able to talk directly with the mum, and refer her to urgent care if needed.
Read More
Stephen's Story
A nurse at Akala Health Centre, Stephen Opiyo’s work centers around bringing new life into the world. At the height of COVID-19 last year, Stephen enrolled in DELTA, Jacaranda’s virtual learning assistant, equipping providers with skills in emergency care.
Read More
Grace's Story
‘Being in the business of saving lives has been a privilege for me. However, until I became the recipient of our messages, I did not really know how important this work is changing, and saving, lives. I am so proud to be part of this great team at Jacaranda’.
Read More
Christine's Story
Christine Nowerukoi works as a nurse in the Lanet Health Center in Nakuru East. When her facility started receiving weekly feedback from PROMPTS, she noted an immediate change in the way things were run in the facility. ‘When we receive negative reports of staff rudeness, for example, we sit down to discuss it as a team, and make sure it’s rectified’.
Read More
Using Postnatal Checklists to Increase Health-Seeking Behaviors
A growing number of low-income countries have explored integrating postnatal home visit interventions into their maternal and newborn health strategies. This randomized trial evaluates a pilot program in which community health workers (CHWs) visit or call new mothers three days after delivery in peri-urban Kiambu County, Kenya.
Read More
Do Active Patients Seek Higher Quality Prenatal Care?
Despite poverty and limited access to health care, evidence is growing that patients in low-income countries are taking a more active role in their selection of health care providers for prenatal (ANC) care. This study analyzes whether active ANC patients appear to be seeking out higher quality facilities and whether they are more satisfied with their care.
Read More
Using Value Stream Mapping to Improve Quality of Care
In an effort to provide affordable, high-quality maternal and newborn healthcare through a chain of private health facilities in Nairobi, Jacaranda adopted quality improvement as an organization-wide strategy. This study explores the use case for a Value Stream Map - a simple visual tool enabling organizations to engage staff at all levels to gain commitment around quality improvement efforts.
Read More
Reducing Risky Birth Intervals through 'Nudges'
Short birth intervals are a major risk factor for poor maternal and newborn outcomes. Use of modern contraceptive methods can reduce risky birth intervals, but contraceptive coverage remains low. This study tests whether vouchers for free contraception and behavioral ‘nudges’ could increase modern contraceptive use in the postpartum period.
Read More
Expanding Access to Depression Treatment in Kenya
Depression during pregnancy and in the postpartum period is associated with poor outcomes for women and their children. Although effective interventions exist for common mental disorders, most cases in low- and middle-income countries go untreated. This study gathers preliminary data on the Healthy Moms perinatal depression intervention to learn how to build and test a more robust service.
Read More
Gestational Dating & Fetal & Newborn Growth Standards
Perinatal and newborn complications are major risk factors for poor fetal and neonatal outcomes. Gestational dating and growth monitoring can help identify and manage high-risk pregnancies and births. This study captures patients' perceptions of ultrasound and newborn care before and during implementation of the INTERGROWTH-21st standards.
Read More
Putting Women at the Center of Care
By the SPARQ Team
Expectations of poor-quality care deter women from accessing facility-based sexual and reproductive healthcare (SRH), putting them at risk of avoidable health complications. While safety and efficacy of treatment are paramount, the way that women experience care is equally important and will dictate whether and how SRH services are accessed in the future.
Read More
Using Data & Technology to Optimizing Nursing in Kenya
Jacaranda Health is a non-profit organization that develops solutions for government hospitals to help address their maternal and newborn health challenges. Here we describe one of these solutions — a technology-enabled nurse coaching program that is improving the life-saving skills of nurses.
Read More
How Jacaranda Launched a Nurse Mentor Training Center
As our nurse mentorship program spreads to more counties, Jacaranda decided to establish a training center that could meet the growing demand for mentors across Kenya. We describe the process of launching a world-class Nurse Mentor Training Center in Nairobi.
Read More
Can better data and dashboards improve public health system decision-making?
We have created accessible dashboards for our county government partners to help them improve decision-making and facility management. Here are some of the levels learned and early wins since setting up this system.
Read More
Supporting Government Health Systems During COVID-19
As Kenya joins the list of countries implementing tough measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the lessons learned from Ebola have inspired us to think critically about our role in the face of this outbreak: supporting government hospitals to deliver high quality, essential services for mothers and babies.
Read More
Teletriaging to give moms virtual support during COVID-19
Jacaranda have rapidly built, tested and launched a “teletriage” system to support mothers with remote, ‘virtual’ antenatal cadre appointments. The goal of teletriaging is not to replace in-person care, but to identify those mothers in need of urgent attention.
Read More
