The SAM tool consists of a rapid assessment tool administered through health management teams in the district. The tool generates information on the availability of specific health services in each district. Data were also collected on the presence of health personnel and on the estimated coverage of selected interventions. The questionnaire was programmed in a PDA (Palm Pilot).
The district questionnaire was applied in 36 districts. The teams applied the facility questionnaire in all the facilities of the 12 districts (commune level), which were selected based on the 12 prefectures (counties) of Albania.
The teams collected data for all communes and facilities in the main city for these 12 districts. The HealthMapper Geographical Information System (GIS) has been used to upload the data and link them to a GPS database containing the geographic coordinates of each health facility. The HealthMapper has been used to produce maps showing the distribution of key health services by district and, for selected services, the distribution of these services in the district.
