Monitoring and Evaluation in Healthcare

Monitoring and Evaluation in Healthcare

• Monitoring and evaluation are essential management tools to ensure health activities are implemented as planned and desired results are achieved.

Goals and Objectives

• Establishing goals and objectives is a crucial step in the planning cycle.
• Goals and objectives guide the implementation of a program and serve as a basis for evaluation.

Monitoring

• Monitoring is a process of measuring, recording, collecting, and analyzing data on the actual implementation of a program.
• It helps identify problems in implementation, detect deviations from planned operations, and take corrective action.
• Monitoring helps in:
  • Setting norms of performance
  • Measuring the level of performance
  • Comparing performance levels with standards or norms
  • Identifying deviations and explaining reasons for taking corrective action

Purpose of Monitoring

• The purpose of monitoring is to ensure that programs are implemented as planned.
• It provides concurrent feedback on the progress of activities, identifies problems, and takes corrective action.

Evaluation

• Evaluation assesses whether a program has achieved its desired results.
• If the desired results are not achieved, evaluation helps redesign the program.

Monitoring and Planning

• Inadequacy in planning results in inadequacy in monitoring.
• A well-prepared action plan specifies what needs to be done, who is responsible, and when it needs to be done.

Monitoring Process

• The monitoring process involves:
  • Detecting deviations from plans
  • Diagnosing causes for deviations
  • Taking corrective action