Lwala Community Health Centre

Lwala is a private community health centre in North Kamarango, Kenya. The facility opened in 2007, offering primary services and aiming to build a ‘county model’ of community-led health. Lwala has a capacity of 30 in-patient beds and serves more than 4,500 patients per month.  

Lwala wanted to become a center of excellence in the region and achieve better clinical care outcomes. 

Within 5 years, the health centre raised its quality from level 3 to level 4. It created a quality health care team and introduced standard operating procedures for infection prevention, lab processes and malaria treatment. The facility now has weekly quality improvement meetings, and collects several forms of data, for instance through patient satisfaction surveys. It has hired a quality improvement officer and has set up a clinical excellence department. 

Under 5 mortality and neonatal mortality have decreased, through enablers such as more skilled delivery and a better immunization rate. Monthly patient visits, revenues and patient satisfaction have all increased. NHIF reimbursements per patient visit have also increased.

To progress to level 5, Lwala plans to implement better crowd management. It wants to expand the facility with imaging and lab services and create a dedicated ward for women. It is working with regional facilities to support clinical excellence.