Women Making a Difference
Dr. Olga Chernobrovkina, Russia
 |
Dr. Olga Chernobrovkina (with microphone on the right) facilitates a joint learning session of teams from St. Petersburg, Togliatti, Saratov, and Orenburg Oblasts.
Source: USAID Health Care Improvement Project |
Dr. Olga Chernobrovkina is a pediatrician with many years of professional experience who is now leading USAID-funded health care quality improvement initiatives in Russia, under the Mission's HIV/AIDS Treatment, Care and Support activity.
Dr. Chernobrovkina was the Deputy Head of the Regional Pediatric Hospital in the city of Tver when the USAID Quality Assurance Project came to Russia in 1998. Tver was proposed as one of the demonstration regions for the application of quality improvement methodology to the health sector. Not surprisingly, the maternal and child health area was identified as a priority, and Dr. Chernobrovkina and her staff were thrust into the unfamiliar terrain of improvement work.
After learning quality improvement methods to analyze and find weaknesses in existing care processes, Dr. Chernobrovkina decided to focus on improving services for neonates suffering from respiratory distress syndrome (RDS). Working with neonatalogists from a few sites in Tver, she led a team that redesigned and put in place protocols for management of neonates and emergency transfer of newborns suffering from RDS to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the Regional Hospital. The results were impressive: In less than two years, the seven-day survival rate for neonates after primary resuscitation increased to 95 percent and mortality from RDS decreased by 64 percent.
Empowered by these results, Dr. Chernobrovkina and her staff became active promoters of improvements throughout the Tver region and later helped to facilitate the application of their improved care processes and improvement methods in more than 20 other regions in Russia. Her leadership in facilitating the application of the quality improvement approach by a large number of teams and hospitals in the Tver region and beyond served to transform Dr. Chernobrovkina from clinician to a committed quality improvement professional.
 |
Dr. Olga Chernobrovkina (left)
Source: USAID Health Care Improvement Project |
In 2004, USAID and the Russian Ministry of Health and Social Development identified the fight against the HIV/AIDS epidemic as a priority area for bilateral cooperation. The Quality Assurance Project was asked to address improvement of the quality of HIV/AIDS care in Russia. HIV/AIDS services pose a particularly complex area for improvement. Dr. Chernobrovkina was among the few leading professionals in Russia who knew how to engage health professionals in improvement efforts and make them effective. She decided to leave her clinical career in pediatrics in order to be further engaged in quality improvement and, by doing so, to promote its application across other health and social services in Russia.
Today, Dr. Chernobrovkina is a leading expert in quality improvement in Russia whose contributions have been widely recognized by health authorities, providers, and patients. As part of the USAID Health Care Improvement Project, she runs innovative improvement efforts for HIV/AIDS care that involve providers from more than 100 hospitals and city AIDS centers, social services organizations, and nongovernmental organizations.
"We are grateful to Dr. Chernobrovkina for her mentoring in guiding us through the improvement of HIV/AIDS services in our district. We have learned much from her patience and professionalism," remarked Dr. Tatiana Popova, Director of the Krasnogvardeisky District Health Department of
St. Petersburg City.
Dr. Chernobrovkina's ability to energize health professionals around improving health care quality and her contributions to better health and social services are making a difference for people living with HIV/AIDS in St. Petersburg City, Leningrad, Saratov, Orenburg, and many other Russian regions.
Story provided by USAID Health Care Improvement Project
>>> Read more stories from the Women Making a Difference in Global Health Series |
