Health Systems
Health Services Support
A strong health system delivers quality services to all comers, when and where they are needed. The exact structure and function of health systems vary from country to country, but in all cases these systems require well-maintained facilities, adequate medical supplies and efficient logistics to deliver quality health care. Such systems also need a well-trained and adequately compensated workforce, reliable information on which to base decisions and policies, and a robust financing mechanism.
Our goals at International Medical Corps include:
- Improving overall quality of healthcare services delivered throughout the continuum of care, from the community, to district hospital and tertiary level facilities.
- Promoting accountability for health care delivery – generating voices for both consumer and provider. One important step in this process: supporting community, district-level and national health committees.
- Strengthening district level health service management –planning, monitoring, supervising support for logistics and administrative issues such as health information management and pharmaceutical supply chains.
- Supporting ministries of health as they make the transition from emergency to development –with measures such as conducting gap analysis.
- Facilities construction.
Our Response
Our response to building a strong health system is anchored in our commitment to strengthening the skills and knowledge of those who staff the system at every level. We do this by drawing on our organization’s extensive experience in training. We partner with local community leaders to build confidence and develop solutions that best fit local conditions. As an example, our response to the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone in 2014-2015, included not only operating the Ebola Treatment Centers fully equipped with staff and supplies, but our Community-based Health Program reached out to influential traditional healers, whose support to convince relatives to avoid touching the remains of a loved one during funeral rituals significantly contributed to halting the spread of the virus. Our response also draws on the expertise we have in our technical specialties, including, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), nutrition, mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS), and family and community health as part of an integrated strategy.
In South Sudan, we support 22 teachers--9 international midwifery tutors and 13 national midwifery trainers-- in the country’s three midwifery and nursing schools.
: International Medical Corps has decades of experience working on the front lines of the global response against HIV/AIDS in more than 20 countries.
We strengthen the global polio eradication efforts in several countries, most notably in northern Nigeria—one of only three countries in the world where polio still remains a threat.