Making Every Baby Count Initiative (MEBCI) is a collaborative project between the Ghana Health Service (GHS), PATH, and Kybele. The project’s goal is for 90% of babies born in targeted health facilities to receive essential newborn care and interventions to address asphyxia, infection, and prematurity according to the government guidelines. Kybele hosted the first MEBCI-Kybele Stakeholders Meeting and provided an overview of the initiative to Ghanaian Regional Hospitals on April 7 and 8 in Accra, Ghana.
Thirty-nine participants representing five regional hospitals, the Ghana Health Service, PATH and Kybele took part. The two-day event started with the welcoming address and introductions by Dr. Yemi Olufolabi and continued with Dr. Emanuel Srofenyoh’s overview of Kybele/GHS work at Ridge Regional Hospital (RRH) (2007-2012).
The MEBCI project was introduced, and expansion to four targeted regional hospitals was discussed. Dr. Medge Owen shared findings from Kybele team’s site visit to the four regional hospitals in late January, and Dr. Rohit Ramaswamy discussed the role of quality improvement in hospital settings as well as the importance of building capacity to help sustain quality of care. Several of those in attendance were invited in the hope they would assume MEBCI leadership roles in the regional hospitals.
The first day of the meeting included a site visit to RRH. Kybele project leaders, including Srofenyoh, gave tours of RRH’s labor ward, NICU, Obstetric Emergency Triage area and theater.
The second day started with a discussion centered on the RRH site visit and best practices. Later, a session was held on the importance of data, a discussion of key data to collect and an overview of RRH’s electronic database. The day continued with institutional presentations on behalf of regional hospitals Sunyana Regional Hospital (Brong-Ahafo region), Koforidua Regional Hospital (Eastern region), Ho Regional Hospital (Volta region) and Kumasi Regional Hospital (Ashanti region). The expansion, rollout plan, goals and timetable for the future were also discussed.
UPDATE: Kybele hosted a second stakeholders meeting regarding data collection in association with the MEBCI project in Koforidua, Ghana on May 21. Data is already being collected and shared for comparison among the other regional institutions.
Kybele is pleased with the progress made thus far in these two important meetings that brought together people from several sectors of the medical community in the name of safer childbirth throughout the country.
