Browsing by Author "Jassat, Waasila"

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    Actor sensemaking and its role in implementation of the decentralized drug-resistant tuberculosis policy in South Africa
    (Oxford University Press, 2025) Jassat, Waasila; Schneider, Helen; Moshabela, Mosa
    South Africa has a high burden of drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB). A policy to decentralize DR-TB treatment from specialized central hospitals to more accessible district facilities was introduced in 2011, but to date implementation has been suboptimal, with variable pace, coverage, and models of care emerging. This study explored multilevel policy implementation of DR-TB decentralization in two provinces of South Africa, Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. Applying interpretive policy analysis, this paper describes how actors across health system levels and geographies made sense of the DR-TB policy and how this shaped implementation. In an embedded qualitative case study, districts of the two provinces were compared, through data collected in 94 in-depth interviews, and analysed using Vickers’ framework of reality, value, and action judgements. Five district cases characterize variation in the pace of implementation and models of DR-TB care that emerged. Individual and collective attitudes for and against the policy were underpinned by different systems of meaning for interpreting policy problems and making decisions. These meaning systems were reflected in actor stances on whether DR-TB care needed to be specialized or generalized, nurse- or doctor-led, and institutionalized or ambulatory. Actors’ stances influenced their actions and implementation strategies adopted. Resistance to decentralized DR-TB care related to perceived threats of budget cuts to and loss of authority of central facilities, and was often justified in fears of increased transmission, poor quality of care, and inadequate resources at lower levels. New advances in diagnosis and treatment to address the growing burden of DR-TB in South Africa will have little impact unless implementation dynamics are better understood, and attention paid to the mindsets, interests, and interpretations of policy by actors tasked with implementation. Deliberative policy implementation processes will enhance the quality of discourse, communication and cross-learning between policy actors, and critical for reaching synthesis of meaning systems.
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    Comparing a paper based monitoring and evaluation system to a mHealth system to support the national community health worker programme, South Africa: an evaluation
    (BioMed Central, 2014) Neupane, Sunisha; Odendaal, Willem; Friedman, Irwin; Jassat, Waasila; Schneider, Helen; Doherty, Tanya
    BACKGROUND: In an attempt to address a complex disease burden, including improving progress towards MDGs 4 and 5, South Africa recently introduced a re-engineered Primary Health Care (PHC) strategy, which has led to the development of a national community health worker (CHW) programme. The present study explored the development of a cell phone-based and paper-based monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system to support the work of the CHWs. METHODS: One sub-district in the North West province was identified for the evaluation. One outreach team comprising ten CHWs maintained both the paper forms and mHealth system to record household data on community-based services. A comparative analysis was done to calculate the correspondence between the paper and phone records. A focus group discussion was conducted with the CHWs. Clinical referrals, data accuracy and supervised visits were compared and analysed for the paper and phone systems. RESULTS: Compared to the mHealth system where data accuracy was assured, 40% of the CHWs showed a consistently high level (>90% correspondence) of data transfer accuracy on paper. Overall, there was an improvement over time, and by the fifth month, all CHWs achieved a correspondence of 90% or above between phone and paper data. The most common error that occurred was summing the total number of visits and/or activities across the five household activity indicators. Few supervised home visits were recorded in either system and there was no evidence of the team leader following up on the automatic notifications received on their cell phones. CONCLUSIONS: The evaluation emphasizes the need for regular supervision for both systems and rigorous and ongoing assessments of data quality for the paper system. Formalization of a mHealth M&E system for PHC outreach teams delivering community based services could offer greater accuracy of M&E and enhance supervision systems for CHWs.
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    The decentralised drug-resistant TB programme in South Africa: From policy to implementation
    (University of the Western Cape, 2022) Jassat, Waasila; Schneider, Helen
    South Africa is one of the high burden countries for drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) globally. A policy supporting decentralised DR-TB treatment provision was introduced in 2011 but to date implementation has been suboptimal with variable coverage and quality. This thesis opens the ‘black box’ explaining sub-national policy implementation of DR-TB decentralisation in two provinces of South Africa, Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. The thesis is grounded in the field of policy analysis and adopts the methodological approach of a qualitative multiple case study, comparing 15 embedded district and subdistrict cases in the two provinces, through data collected in 94 in-depth interviews, document reviews, and observations. Applying Walt and Gilson’s Policy Analysis Triangle framework, the case studies of DR-TB in the two provinces revealed how aspects of actors’ engagement with the policy instrument, influenced by organisational dynamics and the wider context, resulted in varying effectiveness of policy implementation.
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    The role of emergent champions in policy implementation for decentralised drug-resistant tuberculosis care in South Africa
    (BMJ Publishing Group, 2022) Le Roux, Sacha Roxanne; Jassat, Waasila; Dickson, Lindy
    Champions are recognised as important to driving organisational change in healthcare quality improvement initiatives in high-income settings. In low-income and middle-income countries with a high disease burden and constrained human resources, their role is highly relevant yet understudied. Within a broader study on policy implementation for decentralised drug-resistant tuberculosis care in South Africa, we characterised the role, strategies and organisational context of emergent policy champions.
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    ‘We had to manage what we had on hand, in whatever way we could’: Adaptive responses in policy for decentralized drug-resistant tuberculosis care in South Africa
    (Oxford University Press, 2021) Kielmann, Karina; Dickson-Hall, Lindy; Jassat, Waasila
    In 2011, the South African National TB Programme launched a policy of decentralized management of drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) in order to expand the capacity of facilities to treat patients with DR-TB, minimize delays to access care and improve patient outcomes. This policy directive was implemented to varying degrees within a rapidly evolving diagnostic and treatment landscape for DR-TB, placing new demands on already-stressed health systems. The variable readiness of district-level systems to implement the policy prompted questions not only about differences in health systems resources but also front-line actors’ capacity to implement change in resourceconstrained facilities.