A Call Center's CLA Approach to Responding Effectively to the COVID-19 Pandemic

At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Health wanted to establish a call center for contact tracing and requested support from USAID and its Local Health Systems Sustainability project. To address this need, the project chose CLA approaches, including adaptive management, data for decision making, scenario planning, and continuous learning and improvement, to optimize the management of the call center program and respond quickly to changing dynamics of the COVID-19 situation.

By developing a set of assumptions and indicators for scenario planning, the ministry and the project determined the number of nurses needed for the call center and contracted with the Jordan Nursing and Midwifery Council to the center quickly. The project then helped the ministry, the council and USAID adapt the call center through adaptive management and scenario planning updates over time, and continually improving and refining the nurses' calls to confirmed cases. The call center fully utilized its personnel even as the number of cases ebbed and flowed over time by incorporating elements beyond contact tracing.

From December 2020 to April 2022, the call center completed more than 3 million calls beginning with support of the country's contact tracing program and later the monitoring of adverse vaccine side effects and promotion of vaccine uptake. Additionally, the collaboration fostered between the ministry and the council through coordination and management led to deeper trust between the institutions and the ministry partnered with the council for additional COVID-19 response activities.