IHI is working with health sector stakeholders in Latin America, from students to senior leaders, to generate actions that lead to tangible improvements in safety and quality to address existing health and health care gaps.
Our Goal
To support delivery systems and governments throughout the region in closing existing gaps, IHI partners in co-design and implementation efforts by responding to requests to serve as a convener for improvement efforts and networks; provides a platform and serves as a catalyst for health and health care improvement innovation; and, most importantly, drives significant improvement results.
Learn more about our work in Latin America >>
In the Spotlight
Saúde em Nossas Mãos Collaborative
Brazil has a robust universal public healthcare sector, constitutionally guaranteeing free healthcare access to the entirety of its population. However, the quality of care delivered by public sector hospitals varies and the relatively high rates of healthcare-acquired infections across the system is a matter of concern. Aggregate CLABSI, CAUTI and VAP baseline rates (per 1000) across the 119 hospital ICUs participating in the Saúde em Nossas Mãos Collaborative, were 5.45, 4.62 and 13.86 respectively.
To accelerate the development and quality improvement of the public healthcare sector, the Brazilian Ministry of Health created the PROADI-SUS initiative, a public-private partnership with the Hospital Moinhos de Vento, Hospital Sírio Libanês, Hospital do Coração, Hospital Alemão Osvaldo Cruz and IHI’s strategic partner, the Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein. The initiative calls these influential hospitals to action by exempting a proportion of their taxation obligation, contingent on their investment of the corresponding amount to deliver capability building and results-oriented initiatives for public sector hospitals and professionals. This unprecedented Collaborative combines the resources and expertise from of all five of the aforementioned private hospitals in a Hub-driven BTS format, aiming to halve hospital-acquired infections (CLABSI, CAUTI and VAP) across the board by December 31, 2020.
Spreading Successful Approaches to Reduce Unnecessary C-Sections in Brazil
Building on the work of
Projeto Parto Adequado, which successfully increased the rate of vaginal birth from 21.6% to 38% over 18 months in 26 public and private hospitals, IHI and Brazil’s Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein have received $1.5 million in funding from Merck for Mothers for Phase II of the project to spread the methods used and lessons learned to an additional 137 hospitals across Brazil.
St. Jude's Collaborative
The Mexico in Alliance with St. Jude Golden Hour Collaborative (MAS+ Collaborative) is the result of a joint effort between the St. Jude Global Mexico Regional Program team and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). The MAS+ Collaborative integrates 23 Mexican hospitals and 148 health professionals in an 18-month Quality Improvement Collaborative modelled around IHI’s Breakthrough Series (BTS) Model with the overall aim of reducing treatment-related morbidity and motality amongst children with cancer. The aim of the first phase (Golden Hour) of the MAS+ Collaborative is to increase the percentage of febrile Pediatric Hematology-Oncology (fPHO) patients who present to the emergency department who receive the first dose of antibiotic within 60 minutes from the initial assessment across 23 participating hospitals of Mexico from a baseline of 39% to 80% by the end of November of 2020.
Eleven months into the implementation of the Collaborative, participating hospitals have reported 1,073 fPHO visits, of which 781 (73%) received antibiotics within 60min. The mean time to antibiotic administration has decreased from 148 minutes at baseline to 68 minutes during the implementation period and the mean proportion of fPHO patients receiving antibiotics in ≤60min has increased from 39% at baseline to 72%.
