Evaluation of integrated antenatal care implementation in primary health care: A study from an urban area in Indonesia

This study was aimed to evaluate the implementation of an integrated antenatal care (ANC) scheme through a retrospective document study using a checklist for measuring the adequacy of the cohort ANC register documented by midwives in an urban area and to describe the barriers for the midwives during the ANC record process.

An exploratory descriptive study using a sequential mixed method was utilised where a quantitative method was employed by collecting secondary data of 150 entries of the cohort ANC register and followed by in-depth interviews among midwives and community health workers.

The results show that the cohort registry indicators for integrated care such as laboratory and management were poorly recorded. Several barriers were found and categorised during the implementation of the integrated ANC, namely (1) governance and strategy, (2) process of care, (3) organisation and management support.

The contribution of this present research is that it provides empirical data of the integrated ANC implementation in primary health care (PHC) which has the responsibility to deliver an integrated level of care for ANC using a cohort registry for pregnancy registration monitoring which facilitates the continuity and quality of care.

Practical implication of the finding is that functional integration such as the clinical information system to facilitate an efficient and effective approach during the implementation of integrated ANC in primary care should be considered to support the clinical, professional, organisational, system and normative integration.

Since only limited studies have been conducted to assess the quality of the cohort ANC registry and to investigate the barriers against integrated ANC implementation in Indonesia, the research findings are valuable information for the national and local governments to improve the ANC service in Indonesia.