Fix the root cause for the malaria number that does not add up

Do your malaria numbers add up?

In the Malaria: turning the tide programme, health professionals have shared experience like:

• confirmed cases fall while the waiting bench stays full,
• the register and the pharmacy stock card give different totals,
• colleagues report a few cases in a month when the health centre sees many more.

Or the number looks right, but you report it every month and never use it yourself.

Bring the number that troubles you, whatever it is. You dig until you find the root cause, then figure out what you can do about it.

Who this is for

Better data can improve prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. If malaria affects the people you serve and you want to improve the quality and use of the data you work with, this certification is for you. It also prepares you to enter TGLF’s Malaria Impact Accelerator.

5 simple steps to earn your first data quality and use certification

1. Learn. You learn from real accounts by health workers who checked malaria numbers in communities, facilities, and districts.
2. Spot. You pick one data problem you face at work.
3. Dig. You ask “why?” five times, until you reach a cause you can act on.
4. Plan. You find one practical goal and the weekly actions that reach it.
5. Give help, get help. You support your colleagues, and they support you.

Why take this certification

1. You leave with a practical plan to improve.
2. You dig past “it was a recording error.” You keep asking why the error happened until you reach a cause such as a register that ran out or a summary written in a rush. You practise the first skill on the TGLF leadership map: find the root cause.
3. Your fix serves your country’s malaria goals. The World Health Organization asks every country to test every suspected case, treat every confirmed case, and track every case, and calls this Test, Treat, Track. Tracking depends on the quality and use of what you write in your register.

What you earn

You earn a Certificate of Contribution from The Geneva Learning Foundation’s Malaria: Turning the tide programme. When your plan is ready, you enter the Malaria Impact Accelerator, where you implement your plan, learning from and supporting colleagues.

What changes for you

Today you may have malaria numbers that you are not sure about and an explanation that stops at the first answer.

• When you finish certification, you have a root cause, a 30-day goal, and the weekly actions to reach it.
• Most important, you have a community of people just like you to help.