The quantitative and qualitative contributions of faith-based organizations to healthcare: The Kenya case

Abstract

Although faith based organizations (FBOs) have had a long presence teaching health personnel and delivering health services to many rural and remote populations in the developing world, their poor visibility for this work can be due to several factors. FBOs may keep a low profile, be confused with non-religious non-governmental organizations (NGOs), or be excluded from surveys because respondents may not know the affiliation of the healthcare facility from which they last received services. It has been argued that their large networks, logistics agreements with governments, and mission-driven stance bring them closer to the communities they serve and that their services have been a higher quality than average. Kenya has had a long history of established FBOs but there has also been substantial recent health investment by the government. We aimed to find the quantitative and qualitative contributions of FBOs by analyzing two recent data sources: the live webbased nationwide Master Health Facility List and the 2010 nationwide Service Provision Assessment (SPA) survey. Using this information, we found that FBOs contribute to 11% of all health facilities' presence in the country, doubling to 23% of all available beds, indicating their relative strength in owning mid-level hospitals around the country. We also constructed an index of "readiness" as a weighted average from services offered, good management practices, and availability of medicines and commodities for 17 items assessed during the SPA survey. We found that FBOs topped the list of managing authorities, with 69 percent of their health facilities achieving such readiness, followed closely by the government at 68 percent, NGOs at 60 percent and lastly a distant private for-profit sector at 51 percent. These results seem to confirm that FBOs continue to contribute to an important proportion of health care coverage in Kenya and do so with a relatively high quality of care among all actors. It would be of interest to replicate this analysis with similar databases for other countries in the developing world. Key Message: Health facility-based government inventory list and nationwide survey in Kenya reveal high hospital faith based organizations' presence, wide range of service delivery, and better management practices and support mechanisms than public, NGO, and private sectors.

The Influence of Staffs’ Knowledge on Preparedness of Catholic Mission Hospitals for Health Service Delivery during Emergency Inflow of Patients in Nairobi County, Kenya

“…The government of Kenya has a responsibility to offer quality, effective, efficient, timely and safe healthcare service to its citizens. It does this in collaboration with the private and Faith Based Organizations (FBOs) which contribute about 69% of healthcare services offered to Kenyan population (Fort, 2017). FBOs offer health care services to the public on subsidized prices, often catering for the poor, marginalized communities and vulnerable groups of the society where the government may not reach (Omondi, 2016).…”

“…In Africa, between 30 -70% healthcare facilities are owned by the Faith Based Organizations (FBO). Within Nairobi County FBOs accounts for 10% of all the healthcare facilities in the county (Fort, 2017). Most of Catholic Mission Hospitals are not prepared for emergency influx of patients, especially during healthcare professionals' strikes which have been affecting Kenya, such as accidents with massive casualties, bomb blasts, terrorist attacks, fire, and diseases outbreaks.…”

“…This indicates their relative strength in owning middle-level hospitals around the country. FBOs scored 69% being the best in the country in managing authorities and 70% in readiness for service delivery and availability of commodities and medicine, better than the government (Fort, 2017). There is a gap in research and documentation on how Catholic Mission Hospitals are prepared for service delivery during emergency influx of patients in their hospitals.…”

The changing landscape of mission medicine and hospitals in Sub-Saharan Africa

“…61 About 23% of the available hospital beds in Kenya are provided by missionary hospitals. 67 In Cameroon, about 40% of the national healthcare is provided by missions. 51 In the twenty-first century, the budgets of most missionary hospitals in Africa are now provided by the state, rendering the former as mere civil servants.…”

‘We can act different from what we used to’: Findings from experiences of religious leader participants in an HIV-prevention intervention in Zambia

“…Faith-based organisations (FBOs) have assumed a prominent role in the efforts and challenges of HIV programmes in the region (Múnoz-Laboy, Garcia, Moon-Howard, Wilson, & Parker, 2011). This is partly due to researchers' and interventionists' growing appreciation for the centrality of religious identity among sub-Saharan Africans and the influence of religious leaders on congregants (Dilger, Burchardt, & Van Dijk, 2011;Fort, 2017;Trinitapoli, 2009). Collaborative efforts between FBOs and secularoften internationalorganisations to implement HIV and AIDS programmes in the region achieve varying degrees of success (Alubo, Zwandor, Jolayemi, & Omundu, 2010;Bazant & Boulay, 2007;Boyd, 2009;Endeshaw et al, 2017;Global Health Council, 2011;Lindgren et al, 2013;Prince, Denis, & Van Dijk, 2009;Rankin, Lindgren, Kools, & Schell, 2008;Swidler & Watkins, 2017).…”