📄 Category

health systems and quality improvement

98 papers

Improving health systems means finding smarter ways to deliver care, reduce errors, and ensure patients receive the best possible treatment. This field explores how hospitals and clinics can function more effectively, focusing on the practical changes that lead to better outcomes for everyone involved. It is less about discovering new drugs and more about refining the everyday processes that keep our healthcare networks running smoothly.

At Gist.Science, we track every new preprint in this category from medRxiv to bring you the latest research immediately. Our team processes these papers to provide both detailed technical summaries for experts and clear, plain-language explanations for anyone interested in how healthcare can improve. We believe that understanding these systemic changes is vital for building a more resilient future.

Below are the latest studies and insights from the health systems and quality improvement community, sorted by their recent submission dates.

📄 health systems and quality improvement

Structured Hypertension Education and Telephone Follow-up After Emergency Department Discharge: A Prospective Quality Improvement Initiative in Pakistan

This prospective quality improvement initiative in Pakistan demonstrated that a low-cost intervention combining structured discharge education with telephone follow-up significantly reduced blood pressure and improved self-reported care behaviors among emergency department patients with uncontrolled hypertension, despite limitations including a 24% loss to follow-up and the absence of a control group.

Aqeel, M., Hashmi, M., Shoaib, U., Rashid, Z., Hafeez, A. S.2026-09-19
📄 health systems and quality improvement

Contact without protection: high antenatal attendance, minimal hepatitis B testing in Nigerias mother-to-child prevention cascade -- how far from elimination?

Despite high antenatal care attendance in Nigeria, the mother-to-child hepatitis B elimination cascade is severely compromised by extremely low testing rates (12.3%) and suboptimal infant birth-dose coverage (55%), with the greatest gaps occurring in the poorest and highest-burden regions.

Abanni, S. I., Ekure, B. M., Omotosho, J.2026-09-18
📄 health systems and quality improvement

Antihypertensive Pharmacotherapy Gaps in Nigeria: A Predictive Machine Learning Analysis of Treatment Uptake Amid Macroeconomic Shock, Using NDHS 2023-24

This study utilizes machine learning on the 2023-24 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey to reveal significant sex-specific disparities in antihypertensive treatment non-uptake driven by macroeconomic shocks and geopolitical zones, concluding that uniform national interventions are ineffective and advocating for tailored, sex- and region-specific strategies.

Nosa-Ihaza, E. A., Edeh, E. C., Eze, D. N., Nosa-Ihaza, U. N.2026-09-17
📄 health systems and quality improvement

Mapping the socio-technical causes of overheating risk and unequal thermal burden in hospitals in England: a qualitative systems inquiry using AcciMap

This study employs a qualitative systems inquiry using AcciMap to demonstrate that hospital overheating in England is a complex socio-technical challenge driven by fragmented ownership and unequal adaptive capacity, requiring coordinated interventions across governance, infrastructure, and preparedness systems rather than being treated solely as an estates issue.

Filingeri, D., Blount, H., Koch Esteves, N., Daniels, T., Aceves-Gonzalez, C., Brooks, K., Jenkins, K., James, P., Sach (…)2026-09-15
📄 health systems and quality improvement

Do established comorbidity scores predict in-hospital mortality equally well in women and men? A nationwide validation in 166.7 million German inpatient cases, 2010-2024

In a nationwide validation of 166.7 million German inpatient cases, three established comorbidity scores were found to be equally discriminative but systematically miscalibrated between women and men, supporting the need for sex-specific recalibration to ensure fair hospital benchmarking.

Decker, J. A., Mirbagheri, H., Hellbrueck, S., Pfadenhauer, L. M., Seeland, U., Kroencke, T., Scheurig-Muenkler, C.2026-09-15
📄 health systems and quality improvement

Health workforce preparedness for sepsis care in Bahrain: a cross-sectional survey of guideline knowledge, attitudes, and practices

This cross-sectional survey of 260 healthcare professionals in Bahrain reveals that while general knowledge and attitudes toward sepsis management are largely positive, significant gaps persist in familiarity with specific diagnostic tools like qSOFA and in the consistent adherence to critical clinical practices such as early antibiotic administration.

Ebrahim, K. A. O., Jaber, A. A., Mirza, R. B.2026-09-13
📄 health systems and quality improvement

Service Provider Competence, Motivation, and Resource Availability as Determinants of Quality Healthcare Delivery: A Cross-Sectional Study at Makeni Regional Hospital, Sierra Leone

This cross-sectional study at Makeni Regional Hospital in Sierra Leone identifies service provider competence, motivation, and resource availability as significant determinants of quality healthcare delivery, revealing that while most staff are competent, motivation levels are critically low and resource gaps remain a major challenge despite universal agreement on their impact on care quality.

Lebbe, A., Jimmy, A. I., Kamara, S. N., Gary, L. P.2026-09-12
📄 health systems and quality improvement

Coaching for quality improvement under performance-based contracting: a theory-of-change evaluation in Honduras

This theory-of-change evaluation in Honduras reveals that while practice coaching successfully activated pathways for quality improvement in primary healthcare through enhanced professional identity, collective efficacy, and trust, its broader impact was constrained by a misalignment between the intervention's learning-oriented logic and the country's punitive performance-based contracting system.

Munar, W. J., Aranda, L. E., Lauria, M. E., Bernal Lara, P., Innocenti, C., Rodriguez, M.2026-09-11
📄 health systems and quality improvement

Surgical Site Infections in Tanzania: A Five-Year Trend and Variation Analysis of National Surveillance Data, 2021-2025

This retrospective analysis of national surveillance data from 138 Tanzanian health facilities (2021–2025) reveals that while overall surgical site infection rates declined alongside a surge in surgical volume, persistent increases in caesarean section infections and higher rates in primary-level facilities underscore the urgent need for strengthened perioperative infection prevention and control measures.

Charles, C., Masatu, J., Mbise, F., Nassoro, O., David, L., Marandu, L., Andrea, C., Abdulahi, M., Msanjila, U., Beda, N (…)2026-09-11