Recent Developments

Jacaranda Health introduces EMONC Mentorship Drills to Division of Reproductive and Maternal Health under Ministry of Health

Jacaranda Health hosted a workshop in April with the Ministry of Health team led by Head of Department of Family Health Dr. Bashir and Head of Division of Reproductive and Maternal Health, Dr. Kaliti. The objective of the workshop was to inform the design of the National EmONC Mentorship Package that is currently under development. Jacaranda Health provided an overview of their EmONC Mentorship program, and in particular how Jacaranda has incorporated simulation drills and other exercises into facility-based mentorship. This is one of the initiatives by the Jacaranda Health team to foster relationships with the Ministry as well as strengthen partnerships with the government to scale up programs to reach national level.  EfD are delighted that their grant funding has been so effective in supporting the key roles crucial for Jacaranda Health to be able to successfully expand government partnerships and navigate their sustainability goal of increasing government contribution of program costs for nurse mentorships.

How DELTA is helping providers learn life saving knowledge rapidly and effectively.

DELTA (Digital EmONC Learning and Training Assistant) is now reaching providers across Jacaranda partner counties. Now, a busy nurse in a maternity ward can easily access important ‘bite-sized’ content via her phone. She is taken through case scenarios and her understanding of their material is tested on the spot. DELTA has been used by almost 300 providers in less than three months, with incredibly promising results. Providers are completing modules at a rapid pace, with average post-test scores of 92%! In addition, they can receive continuing professional development (CPD) points for their participation.

“Leave no money on the table”: Financing maternal and child health service delivery

In March, Jacaranda partnered with Kenya’s Council of Governors and the health financing organization Thinkwell to host a workshop for health leadership of six of Kenya’s most populous counties. The two-day workshop was designed to help their government partners get a better understanding of available avenues for financing for health services, and to demonstrate that digital tools like PROMPTS can be low cost, high impact ways of using scarce resources to serve their clients. Ministry of Health (Department of Family Health) representatives joined as well to help guide discussions. Participants shared funding opportunities and untapped resources to solve maternal and child health challenges - such as more effective hospital reimbursement through NHIF’s Linda Mama program. A frequent comment from county leaders was that they had not realized how much money was ‘being left on the table’ due to lack of awareness. Teams left the workshop with a resolve to seek resources more aggressively for the upcoming financial year.

Jacaranda connects PROMPTS mothers to ‘Wheels for Life’ 

Jacaranda Health were excited to announce that they have joined “Wheels for Life”, a multi-partner consortium led by Kenya Healthcare Federation and Amref with Telesky, Bolt, and Rescue.co. ‘Wheels for Life’ provides transportation from home to hospital for pregnancy-related emergencies, and has already connected nearly 2,000 mothers with cabs and ambulances. Jacaranda Health will boost awareness among its 400,000+ PROMPTS users across 10 counties. PROMPTS mothers with pregnancy danger signs in need of emergency transport will be connected to the Wheels for Life helpline for additional triaging and transport in the partner counties where it is available.

Jacaranda Q1 Impact Report is here

The first quarterly report for 2021 focuses on Jacaranda's PROMPTS program, which enrolled over 100,000 mothers last quarter to reach 430,000 mothers to date. They unpack some of the interesting data coming out of the PROMPTS helpdesk - growing questions volumes, increasing numbers of urgent clinical calls, and managing response times at scale. They also profile one of their newest helpdesk team members, Faith Bwana. Meanwhile their mentorship team are now working in over 250 facilities and have trained over 4,100 frontline providers. Read the report here.

As thousands of families continue to trust Penda with their healthcare needs, the first three months of 2021 have been Penda's best ever as they opened their 20th medical center in Rongai, with  #21 opening in Ngong and #22 in Kawangware soon!

Currently, 50% of Penda patient visits are tech-enabled, and they plan to scale this to 90% by the end of the year. What does this mean, and why is it important? A tech-enabled visit is one that is supported by clinical decision support tools – sometimes diagnosis support and sometimes treatment support. For instance, all of Penda's antenatal care visits are supported by interactive checklists ensuring that providers are checking for all of the danger signs that may indicate a high-risk pregnancy. And for those who may be diagnosed with a urinary tract infection, they are making sure that it is easy to prescribe the right molecule to ensure they get better quickly.

Last month, Penda deployed an automated WhatsApp chatbot to open up another channel of patient engagement. Patients can now chat with them via WhatsApp and get all their health matters sorted at the comfort of their homes! To try it out, follow this link: https://wa.me/254207640471

Penda have over 12,000 call center interactions each month. Patients call them for medical consultations, general information, and even drug delivery. Penda call patients to make sure they’re getting better and are staying on schedule with recommended visits, like antenatal care and vaccinations. 

Thanks to COVAX, the vaccine has arrived in Kenya. Penda are working to position themselves to deliver the Covid-19 vaccine to vulnerable populations. See this article by their Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Rob, outlining Penda’s commitment to rapid, effective, and equitable vaccine distribution.

In Jacaranda's February 2021 newsletter they annouce the launch of DELTA, an e-learning platform for healthcare providers across the country, share how they are working with Kakamega County to rethink maternal and newborn health service delivery, and publish their quarterly Impact Report from Q4 2020.