Manual Wheelchairs - World Health Organization

3.5 Monitoring and evaluation
3.5.1 The need to measure performance
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Monitoring and evaluation of a wheelchair service can help identify those areas that are successful
and those that can be improved. Monitoring is the regular ongoing collection and analysis of
information to track the quality and effectiveness of the wheelchair service. Evaluation refers to an
overall evaluation, usually conducted over a short period of time. Evaluations are often carried out
annually or sometimes biannually. Information gained through regular monitoring is often used
as part of an overall evaluation.
It is recommended that services establish a system for regularly monitoring the service, and conduct
annual overall evaluations to assess service performance and impact.
Box 3.13. Purpose of monitoring and evaluating wheelchair services
Monitoring and evaluation can provide important information that enables services to:
n improve the quality of services and products
n improve service processes such as referral, appointments and follow-up
n contain costs by increasing efficiency
n demonstrate the benefits of wheelchair service delivery for users
n demonstrate the effectiveness of the service
n identify and quantify unmet needs
n plan further development of the service
n allocate resources appropriately
n justify current and proposed service funding
n develop stronger partnerships with service recipients
n enhance credibility and funding opportunities.
3.5.2 Monitoring
Regular monitoring can be established as follows.
1. Identify the areas and activities of the service that should be routinely monitored. Examples
are the rate of referrals, waiting times, the number of users receiving wheelchairs, the types of
wheelchair prescribed, the number of follow-ups and the level of user satisfaction.
2. Set “performance targets” for these areas and activities. A performance target is a statement of
how well the service would like to perform in that area. This may often be linked to funding. For
example, funding may have been provided to the service based on agreed objectives or targets.
Performance targets should be realistic, taking into account the resources available.
3. Identify the information that needs to be collected in order to be able to monitor service
performance for each area – and how it will be collected. Ideally, gathering information should be
part of the service’s normal record keeping, and should thus require very little additional work by
service personnel.
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