Description of Innovation

Rwanda’s national health insurance scheme covers 90% of Rwandans. However, this insurance is only accepted at public facilities and many Rwandans must walk long distances or pay high costs for transportation in order to access healthcare. In addition, the public community health centers are overburdened and underfunded, making basic primary care difficult to obtain.

Under a public-private partnership agreement, OneFamilyHealth (OFH) is working with the Ministry of Health of Rwanda to expand access to primary care through a franchised network of nurse-run clinics. OFH works with local officials to identify areas most in need, recruits and trains nurses to become franchisee business owners, and provides ongoing monitoring and quality assurance, administrative and logistical support. OFH participates in the national health insurance program, keeping services affordable to rural populations while enabling a revenue stream for nurses to run viable small businesses. Under the public-private partnership, OFH has a target to establish 500 health posts in Rwanda, helping the Ministry to achieve its goal to establish a health post in every cell across Rwanda, ensuring access to critical health services. 

OFH has achieved remarkable progress. To date, OFH has opened more than 90 heath posts and served more than 600,000 patients across 11 districts. OFH is seeking grant funding to support  operations and expansion until it reaches its target of 500 health posts, at which point the network will be financially self-sustaining.  

 

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