Egypt

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in Egypt, placing a significant burden on the country’s fragile health system. To address this issue, GHLI and the National Bank of Egypt (NBE) partnered to establish the Hospital Strengthening Initiative to improve hospital care for patients with cardiovascular disease.

GHLI, the Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation at Yale, and the NBE collaborated to create Egypt’s first data registry for patients with Acute Coronary Syndrome to help measure quality of care, identify gaps and evaluate efforts to improve hospital performance. This data have been used by participating hospitals to inform quality improvement efforts, by medical residents as applied training experience in measurement and quality improvement, and shared with national, regional and global scientific communities as the first systematic assessment of care for cardiovascular patients in Egypt.

GHLI and the NBE also established the Hospital Strengthening Initiative at the National Heart Institute. Through training and mentoring, teams reduced waiting time for procedures and crowding in the Cardiac Catheterization lab; designed and implemented an inventory management system for that lab; and developed a more effective work plan to improve patient flow in the outpatient clinics. To learn more about this work, click here.

Throughout a two-year partnership, GHLI worked to transfer data management and quality improvement tools and skills to colleagues at the NBE and in partnering hospital sites, where health systems strengthening efforts continue today.

“Where hospitals once sought medical equipment, they now seek management mentors and access to data on their performance. The tide is turning.” - NBE representative