Improving Quality of Maternity Services in LMIC Settings: An Insight into Facility-based Quality Improvement Projects and Implications for Future Projects

This narrative review explores the characteristics and outcomes of facility-based quality improvement (QI) projects pertaining to maternal health, conducted over the last decade in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs).The literature on this topic was searched in PubMed, Medline, and Google Scholar, and 33 QI articles were identified.We used the quality standards proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO) quality of care framework for this review.The QI projects were analyzed based on several themes: the methodology adopted in the projects, interventions and outcomes, and common limitations of QI projects.In this review, we found that although LMICs have implemented several QI projects, there is still a deficiency in many key areas.The authors also synthesized 12 key steps that can be followed in future QI projects conducted in LMICs.This review highlights the importance of conducting QI projects in LMICs and encourages health administrators to focus on key areas identified by the authors.