Abstract:

Background: Statistical process control (SPC) is a collection of tools that when used together can result in process stability and variance reduction in production and services. For effective and efficiency of quality performance, health practitioners must be fully aware of general concept of SPC, its components and how to apply it in their daily work. Health practitioners are the once who will shape the nature of quality of those components to fit the needs and demands of health seekers (customers) through proficient application of SPC in their daily practices. However, different studies reported that, general concept of SPC is unclear to many practitioners and its application does not gratify the needs and demands of those health seekers. The study was aimed at evaluating awareness and application of SPC among rural Tanzania health practitioner.

Method: This article was aimed at evaluating awareness and application of SPC among health practitioners of Rural Tanzania Health Facilities in their daily practices. Non-interventional of cross-sectional explorative method in nature where both quantitative and qualitative data was collected. Thirty five (35) health professionals were conveniently interviewed. Self-administered questionnaires were administered and data was systematically analyzed by excel programs in computer.

Result: The result revealed that, of 35 health parishioners interviewed, (47%) do not completely know the general concept of SPC. On other hand, all (100%) of health practitioners interviewed, had never applied at all SPC in their daily practices. About the tools of SPC, of the 280 required responses, only 22 (8%) indicated that they are aware with check sheet. Few respondents were poorly responded to other recommended tools of SPC. However, there are other forms of SPC tools used in the hospital for quality control. When practitioners were asked on their opinions to apply SPC as way forward to improve their practice in future, a great number (29, 83%) recommended the SPC to be incorporated in clinical practice to improve quality of work.

Conclusion: If properly considered, the result from this mini study will improve efficiencies and effectiveness of performance among health practitioners. The result will also be useful for health facility managers as they will use as a guide for decision making about where improvement and efforts of action to be focused in the first place. However, this study may not sufficiently reflect the real situation of Rural Tanzania Health Facilities as it took place in only one health facility with a very small sample size. For this reason, this study may be a good platform for further study with adequate sample size.

Keyword: Awareness of SPC, standard SPC tools, application of SPC

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