Highlights

• Observations of infection prevention and control practices in primary health care, Kenya

  Bulleting of the World Health Organization, July 2017

  Primum non nocere—first, do no harm. This most basic tenet of medical care is routinely violated in clinics and hospitals around the world today. But the absence of routine data implies that when it comes to improving patient safety, we are often in the dark. We conducted the largest patient safety survey across low- and middle-income countries in 3 Kenyan counties in 2015. Using an observational patient tracking tool, we measured compliance with infection prevention and control practices, healthcare workers’ knowledge of these practices, and the availability of the equipment and supplies needed to implement them. This paper is co-authored with with Amy Dolinger, Khama Rogo, Njeri Mwaura, Francis Wafula, Jorge Coarasa, Ana Goicoechea, and Jishnu Das.

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• Use of standardised patients to assess quality of healthcare in Nairobi, Kenya: a pilot, cross-sectional study with international comparisons

  BMJ Global Health, June 2017

  This study validates the use of Standardized Patients (SPs) for a variety of tracer conditions in Nairobi, Kenya, and provides new results on the quality of care in sampled primary care clinics. We deployed SPs in private and public clinics presenting either asthma, child diarrhoea, tuberculosis or unstable angina. We validated the SP method based on the ability of SPs to avoid detection or dangerous situations, and evaluated the sensitivity of quality measures to SP characteristics. We assessed quality of practice through adherence to guidelines and checklists and in comparison with previously published results from urban India, rural India and rural China. This paper is co-authored with Benjamin Daniels, Amy Dolinger, Khama Rogo, Ana Goicoechea, Jorge Coarasa, Francis Wafula, Njeri Mwaura, Redemptar Kimeu, and Jishnu Das.

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