Abstract
Background. Newborn hearing screening programme has been implemented in Estonia since 2004. The programme is fi nanced by the Estonian Health Insurance Fund. Congenital hearing loss has, without timely and appropriate intervention, negative impact on social skills, literacy, behaviour, academic success, mental health, and quality of life and career prospects. Early detection and intervention can signifi cantly reduce these impacts. The prevalence of congenital hearing impairment in Estonia is significantly higher than in Western Europe, while hearing loss is detected in a very late stage. To ensure a proper and effective use of public finances, the evaluation study “Newborn hearing screening Project 2004 – 20012” was carried out by the Centre for Policy Studies Praxis in 2013.
Objective. The purpose of this report is to conduct a performance evaluation of the screening programme with the focus on project management implementation and not on the provision of care itself.
Methods. The study target group comprises of all Estonian new-born, their parents and screening inspection staff. The following activities were carried out during the evaluation of screening programme: analysis of international practices of neonatal screening, review of project documentation, interviews with the project team, collection and analysis of the project performance measures, assessment of the parents’ satisfaction survey results carried out by the project managers and the evaluation of the projects’ economic viability.
Results. Newborn hearing screening Project has generally positive effects on the general health of the population. The project objectives have been largely achieved. High coverage in neonatal screening is achieved within a very short time. Project design and implementation meets internationally accepted standards.
Conclusions. The evaluation revealed that the main shortcoming of the screening program is that there is no general personalized screening database that would ease the evaluation of the effectiveness of screening.