This report presents an overview of outreach services provided by health workers to remote and rural populations in different countries and contexts. It aims to highlight the potential for these alternative health service delivery models, such as mobile clinics and telemedicine, to enhance the attraction and retention of health workers in underserved areas and encourages further evaluations to be conducted in this area.
The term “outreach services” is used to describe any type of health service that mobilizes health workers to provide services to the population or to other health workers, away from the location where they usually work and live.
Outreach services are one of the possibilities to enhance access to health workers and to improve overall retention at country level. Better mobilization of urban health workers to serve remote or underserved areas is a strategy to improve access to health to the population in remote and rural areas. This collection of case-studies (seven case-studies in the Annexes) illustrates different physical or technology-based strategies that mobilize health workers from hospitals for outreach services.
A wide variety of players can provide outreach services: hospitals or health institutions, professional boards, private companies, nongovernmental organizations or government agencies. This report also aims to engage policy-makers to adopt innovative approaches to attract and retain health professionals in underserved areas.
The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the World Health Organization concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Dotted lines on maps represent approximate border lines for which there may not yet be full agreement.
The mention of specific companies or of certain manufacturers' products does not imply that they are endorsed or recommended by the World Health Organization in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. Errors and omissions excepted, the names of proprietary products are distinguished by initial capital letters.
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