Improving Health System Quality in India
On November 28th and 29th of 2017 the Harvard Global Health Institute (HGHI) and the T.H. Chan School of Pubic Health (HSPH) held a two-day conference at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Mumbai Center. The event brought together key healthcare leaders from across India’s public and private sectors to define a shared agenda for measuring and improving the quality of hospital care in India. We identified what strategies have worked in other countries, how Indian hospitals are tackling these issues today, and ways in which we can create new opportunities for learning and collaboration with global leaders. By identifying and sharing global strategies, the aim is to work together to shape an agenda on the systematic measurement and improvement of care provided in Indian hospitals.
Because people receive their care through many different avenues in India, this effort involved representation across India’s diverse health sector. The objective was to identify key challenges, such as difficulties in measurement of quality, and tools for improvement, and define best practices and points of innovation. This will set a foundation for collaboration on how best to systematically measure quality and evaluate interventions meant to improve healthcare outcomes. Our next phase of work builds directly on the meeting: launching a coalition of heath leaders, hospitals and academics that will both share best practices from around the world and drive a strategy for measuring and improving quality. While this effort will be tailored to the Indian context, we believe output will be relevant far beyond India.