After supporting Dr. Ambrosoli Memorial Hospital in Kalongo, Uganda, for three years, IMPact Foundation continues its commitment in a long-term and increasingly result-oriented perspective. Since January 2022 it has been supporting the neonatology department through an RBF – Result Based Financing – project. The goal is to strengthen the department by improving the quality of services provided and ensuring increased retention of the unit’s medical staff.

For this reason, it was chosen to adopt an RBF approach, which aims to ensure transparency and create a greater sense of ownership and accountability, as funds are disbursed based on the achievement of results that are verified through previously established indicators, according to the following model.

Upon project start-up, an initial audit is conducted, to be used as baseline assessment for evaluating the qualitative starting point of services. The results of the first audit thus serve as a benchmark to verify the improvement in parameters over the three years of the project.

On a quarterly basis, an inspector from the RBF team of the Ugandan Ministry of Health visits the Kalongo hospital to conduct a verification of the project’s quantitative and qualitative indicators. The verification involves staff from neonatology, maternity, laboratory, housekeeping, pharmacy, and any other additional areas identified by the inspector.

At the end of each quarterly verification, the project staff meets to discuss qualitative results and develops a quality improvement (QI) plan, in which each team member is involved with specific tasks and deadlines. The purpose is to make sure that the results of the verifications are translated into concrete actions to resolve the reported issues.

The verification of qualitative and quantitative indicators determines the amount of funding to be disbursed to the hospital each quarter, which is calculated on the basis of admissions to the neonatal intensive care unit (quantitative results) and the score obtained during the verification (qualitative results).