Assignment 1: MNCH Case Study Review

Now that you have learned about the work that Nairobi Women's Hospital and TopCare has
done with maternal, neonatal, and child care, take this time to write an analysis of their work
and impact.
Your Assignment:
1.

List the 3 key challenges that Nairobi Women's Hospital faced.

1. Lack of access - Undeniably, in most rural territories, access in terms of the distances that
people have to travel has proven to be one of the primary challenges in maternal child health.
Because the areas are underdeveloped and underserved, people do not have sufficient access to
transportation and facilities (electricity).
2. Lack of qualified personnel - For the Nairobi Women's Hospital, retaining its medical staff
and getting nurses and doctors who understand the model of what it aspires to do (both from
the standpoints of business and quality) have been quite challenging. Most medical
professionals do not want to work in Kenya, and majority of them prefer to be assigned in
Western countries where there are better terms and opportunities for training.
3. Lack of technology and supplies - In a number of African countries, there is an utter lack of
pharmaceuticals and medical equipment. Even if the latter is available, it is generally expensive
on account of the problem of counterfeit. What makes maternal, neonatal, and childcare difficult
and challenging is the lack of technologies that can deal with or can be utilized to provide the
same quality of care at an affordable price.

2.

Determine which 3 key factors they were most successful in.

1. Thorough recruitment - In order to address its problem of retaining and getting qualified
personnel, the Nairobi Women's Hospital has ensured a thorough recruitment process, in which
they offer better terms and put the prospective personnel through intensive induction and
orientation processes.
2. Negotiations - Since the cost of health care is very expensive and inaccessible in most African
countries, the Nairobi Women's Hospital conducts and undertakes numerous negotiations on a
daily basis, in which it has managed to become the largest private for profit network of hospitals
in the central region of Africa. What the hospital's medical professionals do is that they work
into any of the producers of pharmaceuticals and medical equipment and negotiate a reasonable
price for their needs.
3. Leveraging on technology - The Nairobi Women's Hospital drives the citizens of Kenya to
have health insurance. However, in order to address the needs of social imparting investors to
receive returns, the hospital considers a low-cost model that functions on a hub and speaks
where they have networks of clinics through the use of tele-medicine.

3.

Provide a 2 paragraph analysis that describes the relationship between

Nairobi Women's Hospital's challenges and successes, focusing on how they
were able to scale their services to large populations in urban cities.

In most developing nations, of which Kenya is included, the foremost challenges in maternal,
neonatal, and children's health include lack of qualified personnel, lack of access (in terms of the
distances that people have to travel), and lack of technology and supplies (pharmaceuticals and
medical equipment). Throughout its 15 years of operation, the Nairobi Women's Hospital has
been addressing the abovementioned challenges through different strategies that primarily
involve their medical staff. For instance, in responding to the challenge of retaining and hiring
qualified medical professionals, the hospital resorted to ensuring that their recruitment process
is thorough, which essentially involves offering better terms to its prospective personnel.
However, it is worth noting that upon presenting the terms that they have to offer, the hospital
also takes its potential personnel through rigorously intensive induction and orientation
procedures.
Moreover, one cannot ignore the capacity of technology to provide solutions to the challenges
that the hospital faces. In order to push people in Kenya to strive for health care insurance, the
Nairobi Women's Hospital made use of an economical model that works on a hub and speaks
where they have network of clinics through the platform of tele-medicine. In this manner, they
become connected to the hub and they consequently become capable of providing consultation
in their clinics, particularly specialist consultation.