title: Setting up a quality assurance model for newborn care to strengthen health system in Bihar, India.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A Quality Assurance model was rolled out in Bihar, India. It had two components: external and internal monitoring and giving feedback for action. The parameters included infrastructure and policy, equipment maintenance, stock supply and aseptic measures.
  
  
  METHODS
  The performance and gradation into good/average/poor was measured based on the scores translated from the data collected after giving appropriate weights.
  
  
  RESULTS
  12%, 63%, and 25% units were categorized as good, average and poor based on infrastructure. For equipment, 68% of units performed poorly; for stock maintenance 64% and 35% of NBCCs fell under good and average categories respectively; most (54%) NBCCs had average scores for aseptic measures; 30% fell in the poor category.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Involvement of government in monitoring and feedback mechanism, establishing a system of data collection at the grass root level and analysis at the state level were the positive outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Indian Institute of Public Health- Delhi, Public Health Foundation of India and UNICEF, Bihar, India. Correspondence to: Dr Sutapa B Neogi, Plot number 34, Sector 44, Gurgaon, Haryana, India. sutapa.bneogi@iiphd.org.
authors.forename: Sutapa B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Neogi
authors.forename: Ghanashyam
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Shetty
authors.forename: Shomik
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ray
authors.forename: Projna
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sadhukhan
authors.forename: S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Reddy
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007363:Intensive Care Units, Neonatal / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards*; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards*