Performance evaluation of health houses in Iraq 2021-2022: A descriptive study

A health house (HH) is a basic health facility in rural Iraq. The function of a HH is to provide simple health services and treatments such as giving injections, dressing simple wounds, and monitoring mother and child health. The duties also include dispensing medications, measuring blood pressure, and the daily monitoring of chlorine levels in water. These HHs also provide awareness on different subjects. The main objectives of this study are to assess the availability of the basic features of the HHs and core components of the framework of the World Health Organization (WHO) building blocks.

A multistage sampling technique was used to select 50 HHs out of 497 in Iraq. A questionnaire comprising closed-ended questions was developed to be completed using the researcher's observations and interviews with the healthcare workers in the HHs. The questionnaire covered the basic features of HHs as recommended by the Iraq Ministry of Health (MOH) and the six WHO health system building blocks.

Fifty HHs were enrolled in the study. The availability score of basic features was 43.6% and the general service score was 55.1%. The service-specific score was 23.3%, the health workforce score was 29.6%, and the health information system score was 79.5%. The availability of essential medicines score was 21.2%, the health financing system score was 0.0%, and the leadership and governance score was 66.7%.

The HHs need to follow the standard criteria determined by the Iraq MOH to ensure the proper functioning of the health outlets.