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Standards of Care for Health Centers: Volume 4, Preventive Services

Health for all is an achievable goal for the citizens of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan where primary care focuses on providing high quality preventive, promotive, and curative care in a cost-effective manner. The Jordanian Ministry of Health and USAID-funded Primary Health Care Initiatives Project (PHCI) have formed a partnership to reach this goal. The Standards of Care for Health Centers described here represent a milestone in the road towards better health. They are tangible evidence of the considerable thought and effort that has been devoted to promoting quality of care by the Ministry of Health. The purpose of the "Standards" is to ensure that health center staff members have the basic and essential guidance required for safe, effective, and humane service delivery. The Standards are contained in five volumes, each addressing a distinct aspect of health center services. A sixth volume of performance checklists is included with the Standards to facilitate self-assessment and performance review. As a set, the Standards are intended to serve as a convenient reference, a guide for service delivery, and a tool to support performance improvement. When following the guidelines set forth in the Standards, members of health center staff are assured that services meet the accepted standard of care required by their communities. This is one of 6 volumes, and this volume is described below: Volume 4: Preventive Services This volume addresses two different but complementary aspects of prevention, which are of great importance to the communities served by health centers. The first section covers prevention of childhood diseases through immunization; the second addresses the prevention of infection transmission within the health facility and among clients, staff, and the communities they serve. Immunization guidelines describe management of the cold chain and vaccines, immunization procedures and schedules, roles of staff, recordkeeping, and supervision. Infection prevention includes guidelines for maintaining protective barriers through handwashing, use of gloves and antiseptics, and procedures for decontamination, cleaning, sterilization, and waste disposal. Performance checklists are provided for all important procedures as a guide for self-assessment and performance review.