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 Health & Beauty | April 2008 
Improving the Quality of Health Care in Mexico
 PVNN
 |  | Enrique Ruelas Barajas is the individual in all of Latin America who has had and continues to have the most impact on efforts to improve quality of care.
- Gary L. Filerman |  | | | |
Former Mexican undersecretary shares his strategy for making services and facilities better.
Improving the health of an entire country - from quality of patient care to workforce training - takes time, especially when maneuvering within a large bureaucracy.
Dr. Enrique Ruelas Barajas, former undersecretary of health for innovation and quality during the six-year administration of Mexican President Vicente Fox, knows this lesson from first-hand experience.
During his term, Ruelas Barajas helped lead the Fox administration’s National Crusade for Quality in Health Care. The broad effort aimed to improve services for the country’s 100 million people who receive their care in approximately 20,000 facilities.
Prior to the initiative, a survey showed that about 44 percent of Mexicans thought the health-care system provided low-quality service, he said.
“We wanted to convey the message that this was a vigorous [initiative] to improve the care of the people,” he told a Georgetown audience during a March 25 visit to campus.
Ruelas Barajas served as the keynote speaker in the McAuley Lecture Series - a regular event presented by the School of Nursing and Health Studies.
“Enrique Ruelas Barajas is the individual in all of Latin America who has had and continues to have the most impact on efforts to improve quality of care,” said Gary L. Filerman, chair of the health systems administration department.
Held in Copley Formal Lounge, the event included Georgetown students and faculty and representatives from international organizations, including the World Bank, the Pan American Health Organization, the Joint Commission International and the Inter-American Development Bank.
According to Ruelas Barajas, who currently serves as secretary of the General Health Council of Mexico, the Crusade for Quality worked with a nationwide strategy focused on physical infrastructure, patient safety, personnel training, accreditation, drug supply, human resources and equipment.
Creating change was not always easy or fast, Ruelas Barajas said. He recalled how it took about four years and 17 steps to restructure the Ministry of Health in a way that fully supported the government’s health efforts.
Despite varying degrees of success - including increased citizen participation and the training of thousands of health-care personnel - Ruelas Barajas said more work needs to be done.
“We know that there are still many communities in Mexico that deserve a lot better care than they are receiving now, despite all our efforts,” he said. “It remains to be seen what the real outcomes will be, but at least we can say the platform is there.” |
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