The Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population approached WHO for assistance in strengthening management expertise in the health sector. The programme started in early 2001 aiming to support site leaders and their teams by identifying weaknesses and strengths in their management systems with a view to enhancing their management performance and practices.

The Ministry designated a national MEP director, a team of tutor-mentors and a national center for the programme.  The  Hub, the central coordinating body, is located at the Roda Center for Medical Technology Education in Cairo. 

The Centre is currently developing a learning network that will provide access, through a website, to the tools and methods for improving the capacity and performance of health systems.  It will also act to facilitate the exchange of experience among MEP implementing sites within and outside the country

An assessment was conducted in early 2002 to collect data from the selected sites to identify initial capabilities, barriers and opportunities for management improvement. In mid 2003, an evaluation was undertaken showing that substantial improvements had been made at sites in terms of leadership skills, teamwork and the ability to target critical areas and use problem-solving techniques.  Progress to date includes:

• a wide adoption of management and process improvement principles;

• enhanced leadership of managers such as in areas of staff motivation, responsiveness, delegation of responsibilities and providing feedback;

• improved staff performance, capacity and teamwork;

• improved systems of documentation of management activities and initiatives;

• introduction of a procedure of customer complaints and suggestions

• greater consistency in undertaking data collection;

• improvements in patient satisfaction particular with respect to participation in the problem solving process and responsiveness of staff to their suggestions.

Newly established process improvement projects underway at MEP sites in Egypt include efforts to:

• improve nursing performance;

• improve cost effectiveness;

• shorten waiting times;

• reduce the prevalence of communicable respiratory diseases in specific locations;

• increasing the cost-effectiveness of laboratory procedures;

• increase coverage of thyroid screening in newborns;

• Effective implementation of safety measures in laboratory procedures;

• introduce safety measures for collection of hazardous, medical waste.  

Activities are currently underway to expand the programme to new sites in the Governorate of Giza.  The process has begun with the selection and baseline assessment at new sites and identification of process improvement projects. The rest of the 2004 will focus on introducing the MEP curricula to site staff, with the presentation of process improvement projects and final evaluation of the expansion phase scheduled for November/ December 2004.

• View process improvement projects underway at sites in Egypt

• See the achievements of the programme in Egypt so far

Back to Regional Experience