Quality is a critical dimension of Social Justice and Human Rights principles and it forms one of the pillars of a viable and sustainable health care system. As such, there has been a growing interest among the Policy Makers and Stakeholders during the recent past
to improve quality of care through establishment of a customer oriented approach. The National Health Sector Strategic Plan II prioritizes Quality Assurance and Standards as a support system that facilitates the development and use by all health professionals of clinical standards, protocols and guidelines and ensures strengthening of the clients’ rights.
The Kenyan Health System has been facing many challenges that include declin- ing trends of health indicators, Health Systems failure, dissatisfied customers/clients and health providers resulting to high attrition rates. There also exist wide disparities
in the quality of services delivered not only between public and private institutions of similar categorization but also across regions and towns and in between institutions of disparate ownership and or sponsorship. Investments, particularly in infrastructure and human resources, have not been appropriately coordinated, with the result that these inputs are not rationalized or equitably distributed across the country.
The constitution of Kenya in its chapter on Bills of right is clear on the need to address the citizens’ expectations of the right to the highest attainable standards of health including reproductive health and emergency treatment. The social pillar for the Vision 2030 indicates the need to improve the overall livelihoods of Kenyans, through provision of efficient and high quality health care systems with the best standards. To address this, the Health Sector will implement various quality models including KQMH, ISO and 5S-Continuous Quality Improvement (Kaizen)-TQM approach aiming at improv- ing health service delivery. As a long term target, quality excellence in the health sector is envisaged to be achieved through the implementation of KQMH using the 5S-CQI (Continuous Quality Improvement)-TQM step-wise approach.