[Assessing program sustainability in public health organizations: a tool-kit application in Haiti].

BACKGROUND: Public health stakeholders are concerned about program sustainability. However, they usually conceive sustainability in accordance with financial criteria for at least one reason. No simple frameworks are operationally and theoretically sound enough to globally evaluate program sustainability. The present paper aims to describe an application of one framework assessment tool used to evaluate the sustainability level and process of a Nutritional Care Unit managed by a Swiss humanitarian agency to fight against severe child malnutrition in a Haitian area. The managing agency is committed to put this Unit back into the structure of a local public hospital.
METHODS: The evaluation was performed within the sustainability framework proposed in a former article. Data were collected with a combination of tools, semi-structured interviews (n=33, medical and support staff from the agency and the hospital), participatory observation and document review. Data concerned the four characteristics of organizational routines (memory, adaptation, values and rules) enabling assess to the level of sustainability. In addition, data were related to three types of events distinguishing routinization processes from implementation processes: specific events of routinization, routinization-implementation joint events, and specific events of implementation. Data analysis was thematic and results were validated by actors through a feed-back session and written comments.
RESULTS: The current level of sustainability of the Nutritional Care Unit within the Hospital is weak: weak memory, high adaptation, weak sharing of values and rules. This may be explained by the sustainability process, and the absence of specific routinization events. The relevance of such processes is reasonable, while it has been strongly challenged in the troublesome Haitian context. Riots have been widespread over the last years, creating difficulties for the Hospital.
CONCLUSION: This experience suggests the proposed framework and sustainability assessment tools are useful when the context permits scrutinization of program sustainability.