AUTHOR=Rivas-Morello Briana , Horemans Dirk , Viswanathan Kavitha , Taylor Chelsea , Blanchard Andrea , Karamagi Humphrey , Droti Benson , Titi-Ofei Regina , Nikiema Laetitia Ouedraogo , Traore Moussa , Kipruto Hillary , del Riego Amalia , Houghton Natalia , Salah Hassan , Alasfoor Deena , Doctor Henry , Tahirukaj Ardita , Tille Florian , Zapata Tomas , O'Neill Kathryn TITLE=Assessing capacities and resilience of health services during the COVID-19 pandemic: Lessons learned from use of rapid key informant surveys JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health VOLUME=11 YEAR=2023 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1102507 DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2023.1102507 ISSN=2296-2565 ABSTRACT=This article is part of the Research Topic

‘Health Systems Recovery in the Context of COVID-19 and Protracted Conflict.’

Problem

Many countries lacked rapid and nimble data systems to track health service capacities to respond to COVID-19. They struggled to assess and monitor rapidly evolving service disruptions, health workforce capacities, health products availability, community needs and perspectives, and mitigation responses to maintain essential health services.

Method

Building on established methodologies, the World Health Organization developed a suite of methods and tools to support countries to rapidly fill data gaps and guide decision-making during COVID-19. The tools included: (1) a national “pulse” survey on service disruptions and bottlenecks; (2) a phone-based facility survey on frontline service capacities; and (3) a phone-based community survey on demand-side challenges and health needs.

Use

Three national pulse surveys revealed persisting service disruptions throughout 2020–2021 (97 countries responded to all three rounds). Results guided mitigation strategies and operational plans at country level, and informed investments and delivery of essential supplies at global level. Facility and community surveys in 22 countries found similar disruptions and limited frontline service capacities at a more granular level. Findings informed key actions to improve service delivery and responsiveness from local to national levels.

Lessons learned

The rapid key informant surveys provided a low-resource way to collect action-oriented health services data to inform response and recovery from local to global levels. The approach fostered country ownership, stronger data capacities, and integration into operational planning. The surveys are being evaluated to inform integration into country data systems to bolster routine health services monitoring and serve as health services alert functions for the future.