Solar-powered oxygen, quality improvement and child pneumonia deaths: a large-scale effectiveness study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Pneumonia is the largest cause of child deaths in low-income countries. Lack of availability of oxygen in small rural hospitals results in avoidable deaths and unnecessary and unsafe referrals.

Method

We evaluated a programme for improving reliable oxygen therapy using oxygen concentrators, pulse oximeters and sustainable solar power in 38 remote health facilities in nine provinces in Papua New Guinea. The programme included a quality improvement approach with training, identification of gaps, problem solving and corrective measures. Admissions and deaths from pneumonia and overall paediatric admissions, deaths and referrals were recorded using routine health information data for 2-4 years prior to the intervention and 2-4 years after. Using Poisson regression we

SUBMITTER: Duke T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7907560 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature