GHS urges health managers to use community scorecards to improve healthcare delivery

The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has urged health managers to utilize community feedback through Community Scorecards to enhance healthcare delivery and accountability. Dr. Samuel K. Boakye-Boateng, Director of the Policy, Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation Division of the GHS, emphasized that the Community Scorecard should serve as a bridge from community experiences to evidence-driven action.

Developed in 2018 by the Ministry of Health and GHS, with support from the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA), the scorecard enables communities to assess health services quarterly at the Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) level using nine indicators.

The scores and action plans are recorded on the District Health Information Management System (DHIMS2) and the Community Scorecard web platform for monitoring and follow-up. The scorecard captures clients' experiences, such as respect during treatment, reasonable waiting times, and availability of medicines, diagnostic services, and clean facilities.

Dr. Boakye-Boateng stressed that the value lies in the actions taken after scoring, urging health managers to address the reasons behind red or yellow indicators at various levels. He highlighted that Community Health Action Plans connect concerns to specific responses, promoting monitoring and review.

A recent review by the Project Steering Committee indicated progress and challenges in coordination, stakeholder engagement, follow-up of agreed actions, and sustainability. While collecting scorecard information is crucial, the real value is in using the evidence for planning, supervision, performance reviews, and resource allocation.

The GHS aims to integrate community feedback into routine health service management. Dr. Boakye-Boateng called on health workers and managers to treat community feedback as everyone's responsibility, using it to identify improvement areas. He encouraged journalists to amplify community voices, follow up on commitments, verify evidence, and report on both challenges and improvements, reframing scorecard findings as starting points for problem-solving rather than verdicts against individuals or institutions.