Evaluating health care collaboratives: The experience of the Quality Assurance Project.

This report summarizes the findings of an evaluation of the Quality Assurance Projects work to apply the improvement collaborative approach during 2003-2007 when QAP implemented 35 collaboratives in 14 developing and middle-income countries. The purpose of the evaluation which was led by EnCompass LLC was to document and evaluate the implementation and results of QAP-supported collaboratives using a formative participatory methodology. The evaluation sought to document: (1) collaboratives as QAP implemented them in countries at different levels of development; (2) adaptations QAP made to the collaborative methodology to support its implementation in developing country settings; (3) lessons learned from QAPs experience with collaboratives; and (4) the value-added of collaboratives as a rapid health care improvement methodology. The evaluation team conducted field visits to six countries where QAP supported one or more major collaboratives.