Community and Health Care Providers Perception on Quality of Private Sector Outpatient Malaria Care in North West Ethiopia: A Qualitative Study

Malaria is one of the most important public health problems in Ethiopia contributing to significant patient morbidity and mortality. Prompt diagnosis and effective malaria case management-through public, private and community health facilities has been one of the key malaria prevention, control and elimination strategies. The objective of this study was to evaluate perceptions of adult malaria patients and healthcare provider on quality of malaria management at private sector outpatient facilities. An exploratory, descriptive, contextual, qualitative research methodology was conducted with 101 participants (i.e. 33 in-depth interviews and ten Focus Group Discussions with 68 discussants). All interview and Focus Group Discussions were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed using eight steps of Tesch (1990). During data analysis a single theme, two categories and six sub categories were emerged, namely (1) Perceived quality of malaria management at outpatient facilities; (a) essential resources ; (a1) safe outpatient services; (a2) antimalarial drugs and supplies; (a3) health workers; (b) factors influencing service utilization ; (b1) Physical accessibility; (b2) “Art of care’’; and (b3) efficient malaria diagnosis and treatment services. Finally, enhancing good governance and stewardship of the public sector to tap the potential of private sector, build the service providers capacity and empowering the community on seeking early medical and safety were recommended.