Monitoring service delivery for universal health coverage: the SARA(Service Availability and Readiness Assessment) tool - 6 countries case| WHO

Access is a broad term that encompasses varied dimensions, including availability, affordability and acceptability.The availability dimension relates to both the physical presence of facilities and the distribution of health-care infrastructure, health workforce and services. 

Several programmes have used tools to generate information about service availability and readiness; however these tools focus only on one particular service area.This fragmented approach runs the risk of leading to information gaps and duplication of efforts and limits the ability to monitor trends in a variety of key indicators. A comprehensive system is needed. 

The Service Availability and Readiness Assessment (SARA) provides a comprehensive approach for monitoring the supply of health services at the facility level by using a standard set of tracer indicators and summary measures to determine the extent to which minimum criteria for the provision of services are met.

This article describes the SARA and the results of its implementation in six countries across three continents.