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The Balaka Call Center Hotline Helps Solve the Healthcare Crisis in Malawi

The Balaka Call Center Hotline Helps Solve the Healthcare Crisis in Malawi

January 24, 2014
By Daniel Brecht, Contributing Writer

To find solutions to reduce maternal and infant mortality rates is the scope of the Innovations for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) initiative. It’s a project meant to overcome barriers that prevent life-saving interventions from reaching the people who need them most, such as the people of the Republic of Malawi, a landlocked developing country in southeast Africa. The goal is to reduce the number of women who die every year from complications due to pregnancy and childbirth, and of newborn infants who die before reaching one month of age.


According to VillageReach, which has a vital role in the project of ICT (Information and Communications Technology) for MNCH, the maternal mortality ratio in Malawi is “675 deaths per 100,000 live births, while 31 children for every 1,000 born die in the first month of life. [T]here is just one doctor for every 44,000 people and one nurse for every 2,300 people. Hospitals are few and far between.” And with the lack of access to timely and reliable health information, more would likely die.

However, according to the online news site Mashable, thanks to Chipatala Cha Pa Foni (which means "health center by phone") that consists of a simple, small call center in a brick building behind the Balaka District Hospital in southern Malawi, there is now a “24-hour, toll-free hotline to address questions from expecting mothers about their pregnancies, as well as new moms with concerns about their young children.”

The call center serves a community of more than 200,000 people (with prospects to expand and serve Malawi's entire population of 16 million) and handles inbound calls to answer health questions from residents of four surrounding districts. The center uses responsive software to aid in follow-up questions to ask, based on the caller's answers. The information is then stored in a database used to track trends.

VillageReach -- which is a not-for-profit organization that improves access to healthcare in Malawi and a number of other sub-Saharan African countries -- is managing this pilot project with funds from mHealth and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The health hotline in Malawi opened in 2011 and promises results in the improvement of health and well being.

At the call center, hotline workers are able to insert the caller's responses into a touch-screen monitor adapted by a local eHealth organization, Baobab Health Trust – a Malawian Nongovernmental Organization (NGO) that is committed to using technological innovation to change lives in the developing world. The organization leads the improvement of health through ICT.

The system guides agents through treatment protocols and simultaneously collects data that is needed by the Ministry of Health. The eHealth solution also improves the completeness, accuracy and timeliness of information collected to route patients to appropriate points of care, like the Balaka hospital, if necessary.

To ensure everyone has access to the call center services, cellphones were distributed to 400 community volunteers in different villages. Providing the service free of charge to callers was possible through telecom provider Airtel (News - Alert) and collaborating partners such as Concern Worldwide; now, funding comes from the United Nations Innovation Working Group (IWG) grant for mobile health (mHealth) programs.

Thanks to the VillageReach and the Malawi Ministry of Health, a toll-free hotline call center with hotline workers trained in reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health (RMNCH) issues is now available to Malawi’s expectant mothers. Hopefully, this initiative will have a significant impact on the mortality rate of mothers and newborns. 


Edited by Rory J. Thompson



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