Tabu Chirwa-Gonani is a registered nurse midwife in Malawi with more than 18 years of experience. Currently, she heads the nursing department at Mulanje Mission Hospital, a faith-based health facility in Southern Malawi, where she is responsible for nursing care and quality improvement (QI) programs. A passionate QI advocate, Tabu leads a hospital-wide, standard-based accreditation program as part of Malawi`s Quality Management Directorate. Under her leadership, the hospital`s QI scores have significantly improved. She is also a sexual and reproductive health advocate. Tabu led the hospital’s COVID-19 response team, helping the Ministry of Health to educate health care workers in case management. Her volunteer work includes efforts to improve the health status of people living with HIV. She holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing and a master’s degree in business administration.
Applied Project Title: Promoting User Feedback to Improve Health Care Quality and Delivery in Malawi
Research suggests that the vast majority of people in Malawi are unhappy with the country’s health care services. This project explored the feasibility of developing a mobile phone mechanism to encourage patients to provide feedback on the health services they receive. Feedback would be used to improve Malawi’s health care delivery system leading to greater public trust and user satisfaction. The project builds a working coalition of community leaders, health care workers, and the Ministry of Health to develop a policy framework in which consumers are aware of their rights and can easily provide confidential feedback using a variety of secure digital platforms. The feedback can help the Ministry of Health and health care providers be more accountable and improve quality of care continuous improvement initiatives.