Quality Care Starts From Within

Loveth Etumonuwa has worked at Lifeline Children's Hospital in Nigeria since 2012. As Quality Manager, she sees it every day: everyone is busy, everyone has their own job to do. Convincing colleagues that quality improvement is also their job? That's the real challenge. It's a challenge she shares with thousands of healthcare workers across Nigeria. And it's exactly what SafeCare set out to change.

Learning that sticks

SafeCare part of the PharmAccess Group works with healthcare facilities across sub-Saharan Africa to improve the quality of care, step by step. Facilities are assessed across 13 areas, from how they manage staff to how they handle medication and protect patient rights. But checklists and assessments only go so far. Real change happens when people understand why it matters and feel confident; they can make it happen themselves. That's what the Interactive Learning project, supported by Achmea Foundation, was built for. Starting with research into what motivates healthcare workers, SafeCare developed a practical online learning tool for the SafeCare Quality Platform. It was rolled out across Nigeria, reaching more than 800 healthcare facilities and facilities that used it made improvements noticeably faster.

The change you can feel

For Loveth Etumonuwa, the impact has been real. Through the SafeCare certification process, her hospital strengthened HR practices, improved emergency response, and introduced hygiene protocols that are now consistently followed. The results tell part of the story. But not all of it. "This project has been an eye-opener," she says. "It showed me what quality in healthcare really means, and that you can get there, one step at a time." That belief now drives how she leads her team. And her ambitions go further than one hospital. "I dream of a Nigeria where quality is embedded in every healthcare institution," she says. "Passed on from generation to generation."

That's the kind of change Achmea Foundation has helped make possible. For 20 years and counting.

SafeCare part of the PharmAccess Group is active in 13,600+ facilities across 27 countries. It helps health facilities measure and improve quality of care, using international standards and a step-by-step improvement approach tailored to local realities. The Interactive Learning project was completed in 2025 with support from Achmea Foundation.