LAUSR

One of the major obstacles to improve the performance of immunization programs is the lack of competent health personnel. To increase the availability of qualified health personnel, the Agence de Médecine Préventive (Agency of Preventive Medicine) has set up a technical assistance focused on supportive supervision. The objective of this study is to analyze the cost of this supportive supervision in 10 health districts of Côte-d'Ivoire. The data extracted from the financial and technical reports of the supportive supervisions included personnel costs (salary, per diem), transportation, communication, office supplies, vehicle maintenance and depreciation. The analysis consisted of estimating the total cost of the supportive supervision, the total cost per item and the average cost of a supervisory visit. The conduct of 40 supportive supervision visits amounted to 44,675.12 USD. Of this amount, recurring costs were 40,112.12 USD (89.79%) and non-recurring costs were 4,563 USD (10.21%). The unit cost per supervisory visit was 1,116.88 USD. The cost of personnel was the largest cost. The total cost of the formative supervision would be reduced by 58.68% through the resort to local facilities' staff for the supervision, and the review of the useful life of the vehicles. The costs for implementing supportive supervision were acceptable in comparison to the benefits. Mastering personnel costs, optimizing the scheduling of supervision tours and frequency of visits focused on districts with the lowest EPI indicators could lead to cost savings.