Consultant for patient feedback mechanism for Palestine Red Crescent Society Hospitals in Lebanon

Terms of Reference

Consultancy for the provision of technical support to strengthen the Palestine Red Crescent Society-Lebanon branch (PRCS-L) Hospital Patient Feedback Mechanism

Background:

Lebanon is harboring the largest number of refugees per capita. About 1.5M Syrian refugees arrived in the country in the last years that added to the Palestinian Refugees that have been living in the country since decades. In response to this large influx of refugees, the Canadian Red CrossSociety (CRCS), through the SCRR project, is supporting the Palestine Red Crescent - Lebanon Hospitals which are mandated to offer health care to the Palestinian Refugees. One aspect that the SCRR project is addressing is the patient feedback mechanisms of PRCS-L already in place in these hospitals, in order to strengthen them and ensure they are effective and strong enough to receive serious complaints.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), founded in December 1968, is a national humanitarian organization and mandated to cater to the health and welfare of the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian Territories (oPT) and the Diaspora which includes Lebanon. This allows PRCS to ensure humanitarian assistance to the large populations of Palestinian refugees in the countries of focus, particularly in circumstances where other humanitarian agencies may have difficulty accessing those communities.  In response to the Palestinian refugees’ difficult situation in Lebanon, PRCS-L has established five hospitals in addition to four Primary Health Care Centers (PHCC) to provide healthcare to Palestinian refugees. PRCS/L is also the main responder to emergencies in the 12 Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon which are often plagued by violence and tensions. All its health facilities are within or next to the Palestinian refugee camps.

Objective of the consultancy:

The Consultant will support Palestine Red Crescent Society - Lebanon branchand Canadian Red Cross to enhance the impact, reach and efficiency of the SCRR project through the integration and coordination of Community Engagement and Accountability activities and approaches in PRCS-L hospitals.

Inparticular, the consultantwill be responsible to strengthen the patient feedback and complaint mechanism in PRCS-L hospitals, ensuring community (patients, hospital staff and PRCS-L staff) feedback and complaints are collected, analyzed and acted upon by the hospitals. The consultant will work in strict collaboration  withthePRCS-L Central Quality Officer and the PRCS-L Medical Services Director and will also be expected to work in collaboration with CRCSadvisor and the CRCS Country Representative, to ensure all information and feedback from communities is effectively visualized, profiled and used to inform strategic decision-making.

Currently, the Patient Feedback Mechanism is operating in all five hospitals both for outpatients and inpatients. Feedbacks are collected mainly two ways:

Boxes:Boxes are placed in the in the hospital and patients (both impatient and outpatient) can fill in a paper where to write their feedback. and express their complaint.

Satisfaction survey:The nursesinterviews all the patients that agree to do it based on a predetermined survey. At the end of the month the administration inputs the results of all the survey in an excel database that is then analyzed by the a committee composed by the Head of Administration of the hospital, the Director of Hospital, the Head of Nurse and the Admission Officer.The committee based on the results of the survey, decides any corrective action.

Further, the hospitals prepare a quarterly report sent to the Director of Medical Services which analyze the reports and verify with the hospital administration if actions have been taken.

Outputs/Deliverables

• Develop guiding documents on storing confidential information and data protection systems for the patient feedback and complaint mechanism      
• Provide training on confidentiality and data protection to identified hospital staff working on the patient feedback and complaint mechanism.
• Map the different services available in the area for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence, develop a referral system and make sure everyone is trained to refer someone appropriately when needed.
• Suggest options to optimize feedback collection methods and agree on possible new systems, including possible use of software (both for data collection and analyses). Simplify and make more user friendly, if deemed necessary, the patient satisfaction survey
• Training staff on the new feedback collection methods and test them
• Evaluate the new feedback collections method and prepare guiding documents              
• Develop a response pathway for the feedback and complaint received. This would include a timeline to respect for follow up, when the complaint needs to be escalated if it is serious and to whom, systematic documentation of actions taken, etc.
• Train the relevant staff in in data analyses using excel or other identified software (sex, age and disability disaggregated data)
• Develop systemsto ensure that patients are informed of their rights when visiting the hospital.
• Develop material and guidelines for general awareness raising session that should be provided to all hospital staff to clarify the  aim of the Patient feedback and complaint mechanism.
• Elaborate a report format for hospital department to report on feedback received with visual representation of some of the trends, disaggregated by sex, age and disability of patient.
• Final consultancy report.

Approach:

The consultant should base its activities on the Trip Report – Feedback and Complaint mechanism of PRCS hospitals in Lebanon prepared by the Community Engagement and Accountability CRC advisors.

The consultant should review the current practice for the Patient Feedback Mechanism prior suggesting any modification and should follow a participatory approach involving diverse groups of patients (including women, youth and marginalized groups) to define what should be the best channel for them to provide feedbacks, including serious complaints (face to face, complaint desk, phone line, complaint box, etc.)

Qualifications and skill

Education

• A university degree in Communication or Social/Behavioural Sciences (i.e. Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology or Health Education) or related fields or experience

Experience

• Three years’ experience in working in community engagement and accountability, communication for development or social mobilisation possibly for a humanitarian or development organisation
• Experience setting up and managing community accountability systems, especially beneficiary feedback and complaints mechanisms in low resource setting
• Experience in setting up and managing tools for communicating with communities.
• Proven experience in planning targeted and appropriate community engagement strategies
• Experience of coaching, training and developing staff and volunteers in order to build long-term capacity and create ownership
• Experience of designing and implementing assessments, community consultations, research and/or focus groups discussions

Knowledge, skills and languages

• Able to work under pressure, to a high standard and to deadline
• Good coordination and negotiation skills, with the capacity to build partnerships with internal and external organisations and bring people together to achieve a common goal
• Excellent interpersonal, communication and networking skills, able to build relationships with people at all levels of the organisation
• Advanced analytical skills, able to capture learning and use it to make improvements in programming and operations
• Highly motivated, self-starter able to take initiative and lead a team or process
• Good knowledge of gender and diversity issues in humanitarian programming
• Fluent Arabic and English (speaking, reading, writing)

The ideal candidate will have an understanding of the international humanitarian system and of the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement. We're looking for someone with exceptional organizational skills.

Timeframe and location of the consultancy

Expected starting date of the consultancy: First half of January 2019

Expected duration of the contract: between 2 months and 2 months and a half.

The consultancy will occur in Lebanon and the consultant is expected to travel to all the 5 PRCS-L hospitals.

Application Procedures & Evaluation

Interested candidates should submit their complete applications electronically through this eamil [email protected] by 06-January-2020.

Application materials should include:

1. Curricula Vitae (CV) of the expert including a detailed list of similar consultancies undertaken, indicating the clients for each consultancy and two professional references;

2. Proposal (Max 3 pages) outlining proposed methodology and workplan;

3. Cover letter clearly summarizing your experience as it pertains to this consultancy.

4. Financial offer. PRCS-L will assign adesk in their office in Akka Hospital - Beirut to the consultant and will cover for transportation costs to the hospitals.

Application material is non-returnable.

PRCS/L will evaluate the offers in light of:

1) qualifications of the consultants

2) the specific solution proposed by the consultants

3) the financial offer

4) performance during the interview

Note: Only shortlisted candidates will be invited to the interview.