Zuellig Family Foundation Study Commences
SDRC recently entered into a new project with the Zuellig Family Foundation as its partner institution in assessing the impact of health facilities constructed under the ZFF Community Health Partnership Program (CHPP). Led by Psychology Department faculty member Ma. Angeles Lapeña as lead investigator, the study entitled “Health Facility Assessment of Zuellig Family Foundation’s Donated Barangay Health Stations (BHS) and Birthing Units (BU)” will also assess how the presence of these health facilities has influenced health-seeking behaviors and health outcomes in the community.
The Zuellig Family Foundation (ZFF) has partnered with various rural municipalities in the Philippines in efforts to improve leadership and governance, which is part of the World Health Organization’s Six Building Blocks of health systems. To support the reforms being implemented by Health Leadership Teams, each municipality under the CHPP receives two infrastructure grants to construct birthing facilities in their respective districts. It is expected that the construction of health facilities would increase access of the population to health services, and therefore improve health outcomes in the community to help reduce the maternal mortality rate and infant mortality rate by 2015.
Specifically, the project will be a two-pronged ZFF-donated health facility performance audit, with two main objectives: first, to determine the impact of the Foundation’s initiative of donating 52 health facilities to selected municipalities, and second to assess the quality of services rendered by the donated facilities, using DOH standards for primary health care facilities.
The other members of the project team are co-investigators SDRC Director and Behavioral Sciences faculty member Dr. Melvin Jabar, Psychology Department faculty member Dr. Homer Yabut, Behavioral Sciences faculty member Prof. Cristina Rodriguez, and field researchers Ms. Ann Sumalpong, Mr. Dominique Monido, Ms. Ma. Antonette Vinteres, and Ms. Abigail del Puerto.
