On February 15 and 16, 2023, Dr. Atul Gawande, USAID Assistant Administrator for Global Health, visited sites in Indonesia supported by MOMENTUM Private Healthcare Delivery and Country and Global Leadership, learning about the program’s work to support quality care for mothers and newborns through the country’s primary health care system.

Dr. Gawande visited two MOMENTUM-supported health centers and met with community members, health workers, provincial and district health officials, and representatives from the Ministry of Health in Kembangan, West Jakarta, and Kupang District, on the island of Timor.

In West Jakarta, Dr. Gawande visited Puskesmas Kembangan, a primary health center that received technical assistance from MOMENTUM Private Healthcare Delivery to enhance its use of the national referral system application, SISRUTE. Puskesmas Kembangan is currently the third best facility in the utilization of SISRUTE in the Jakarta area. During his visit to the health center, which serves more than 300,000 people, Dr. Gawande learned about the transformation of primary health services in Indonesia, as well as health services for the community in maternal and child health, family planning, tuberculosis, HIV, and primary health care. On his visit to Puskesmas Kembangan, he was accompanied by Deputy USAID Indonesia Mission Director Erin Nicholson and the Director of the USAID Indonesia Health Office, Enilda Martin.

In Kupang, Dr. Gawande visited Puskesmas Oekabiti, a primary health center serving more than 19,000 people. MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership recently partnered with the facility to provide facilitative supervision to help maintain their nine-year record of zero maternal deaths. While at the center, Dr. Gawande talked to midwife Adriana, the head of the facility, who has implemented numerous improvements and innovations to maintain the center’s high quality of care and staff performance. Dr. Gawande noted that he was impressed with the Puskesmas’ display of quality improvement data on the walls of the facility, which capture data to identify gaps and motivate the Puskesmas’ team to be more transparent with data. He also visited a community health post to observe a monthly session where community members bring their children under five to assess their health and nutrition. Through these engagement efforts, health workers from Puskesmas Oekabiti help volunteers working in the community health post reach their communities.