Waiting Time. Wasting Time

President and Fellows of Harvard College

Status

Completed

Conditions

Pregnancy

Treatments

Other: Pre-natal visit scheduling

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT02938936

0344

Details and patient eligibility

About

Our study's principle purpose is to determine whether decreasing waiting time before being seen for antenatal care increases demand for and use of antenatal care services in Mozambique.

Full description

This protocol describes a pilot study that will test the impact of a scheduling intervention intended to reduce waiting times for antenatal care. The study will include one intervention health clinic and one control clinic in Maputo, Mozambique. In the intervention facility women attending antenatal care will be informed that if they return at their scheduled date and time they will be seen within one hour by clinic staff rather than having to wait for an indefinite amount of time before being seen for care. Appointment cards will be clipped into ANC cards, which collect routine health data and are kept by women at the end of their ANC visit. Health facility staff will be trained to identify women who return at their scheduled time and to manage patient flow such that scheduled women are received quickly. After the start date of the intervention, all women attending ANC at the health facility will be provided a scheduled return date and time window. Baseline and endline exit interview surveys will be conducted in both intervention and control facilities to compare changes in waiting time, number of ANC visits, and provider satisfaction over the course the study period between clinics.

Enrollment

597 patients

Sex

Female

Ages

18+ years old

Volunteers

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Inclusion criteria for individual study participants enrolled after delivery:

Women who delivered at the health facility during the weeks of recruitment

Inclusion criteria for women whose waiting time is measured:

Women at the health facility to seek care for antenatal care or another reproductive health service (anticipate total enrollment of 800 women)

Inclusion criteria for the health care provider survey is that the provider

Have worked in the health facility for at least 6 months
The health care worker provides ANC as part of their routine duties (anticipate total enrollment of 4 health care workers)

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion criteria for individual study participants enrolled after delivery:

Women under 18 years of age will be excluded
Women whose babies die during labor or childbirth from the delivery exit interviews

There are no exclusion criteria for the sample of women whose waiting time will be measured There are no exclusion criteria for the health care provider survey