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By Timothy Eodu-Moroto
Moroto Regional Referral Hospital has seen great improvements in five main departments of services that the facility offers in the past year -2024. This development is contained in the annual 5S-(sort, set shine, standardise, sustain) monitoring and evaluation report 2024 from the Ministry of Health.
According to the report, Moroto regional referral hospital scored an average of 85% across the five areas, making it among the top performing regional referral facilities in the country as of 2024. Since 2018, following the previous project, the MOH/JICA Project on Patient Safety Establishment through 5S-KAIZEN-TQM (the Project) has been annually evaluating the performance of 5S activities at the target hospitals.
The Project is supporting the 18 hospitals, Arua Regional Referral Hospital (RRH), Entebbe RRH, Fort Portal RRH, Gulu RRH, Hoima RRH, Jinja RRH, Kabale RRH, Kayunga RRH, Lira RRH, Masaka RRH, Mbale RRH, Mbarara RRH, Moroto RRH, Mubende RRH, China-Uganda Friendship Hospital Naguru, Soroti RRH, Tororo General Hospital and Yumbe RRH.
They were evaluated as target hospitals and to fairly compare the 5S performance among them, 5 areas were designated: Store, OPD pharmacy, main laboratory, maternity department and main operation theatre.
Since the 5S evaluation was started in 2018 using the current tool, the performance was the best in 2024. As illustrated in Figure-12 and 13, the average score at 5 designated areas (store, OPD pharmacy, main laboratory, maternity department and main operation theatre) was the highest at 71.61%, and the number of target hospitals scored 70% or more soared from 4 in2023 to 12.
The report also sates that for the last 2 years, both the average score and the number of hospitals scored at least 70% were not beyond the level in 2020, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2024, the 5S performance finally outscored the previous project.
According to it’s findings, Moroto regional hospital performed as below with a great improvement in 5S practice, from a score of 69% in 2023 to 85% in 2024. This improvement was due to a good performance in Leadership (90%) and Standardization (91%).
The improved performance is attributed to the strong support and commitment from the hospital management and the regular internal monitoring conducted by the HQIT to guide actions during internal supervision.
Theatre and Pharmacy were the best in Leadership, scoring 92%. This was achieved through an enhanced spirit of teamwork and a commitment to train their members on 5S practice. The lowest average score was registered in Set at 75%. Although Stores improved from a score of 48% to 69%, it has retained the last position through the three years. The last after scoring the lowest in Set (40%).
Although the facility registered some improvements, there are some gaps that the report found such as inadequate knowledge and skills in using 5S tools amongst the staff, e.g. labeling, zoning, etc, to ensure that work flow and functions of items are appropriately considered in the setting, lack of self-monitoring by the WITs and inadequate funds for training, production of 5S tools and development of own training materials.
For quality improvement at the facility, the report recommends that the hospital management supports the QIT in improving 5S practices by strengthening S4 and S5 in all departments through internal monitoring, training, mentoring, coaching, and regular supervision to avoid fallback, and the hospital QIT develops a QI work plan that includes training and production of materials for 5S; and supports the WITs in conducting self-monitoring and on-the-job training in the use of 5S tools before standardization.
Dr. Stephen Pande Legesi, the Senior Executive Consultant (SEC) at Moroto Regional Referral Hospital attributed this improvement to the general commitment of all staffs and management at the facility and also the mentorship of the staffs. He is optimistic that the hospital will continue to improve in all areas for the better of service delivery in Karamoja and the neighboring regions as well.
