Quality assurance of health management information system in Kayunga district, Uganda
Background: An efficient health management information system (HMIS) improves health care delivery and outcomes. However, in most rural settings in Uganda, paper-based HMIS are widely used to monitor public health care services. Moreover, there are limited capabilities and capacity for quality HMIS...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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AOSIS
2018-09-01
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| Series: | African Evaluation Journal |
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| Online Access: | https://aejonline.org/index.php/aej/article/view/238 |
| _version_ | 1818019730999476224 |
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| author | Harriet R. Kagoya Dan Kibuule |
| author_facet | Harriet R. Kagoya Dan Kibuule |
| author_sort | Harriet R. Kagoya |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Background: An efficient health management information system (HMIS) improves health care delivery and outcomes. However, in most rural settings in Uganda, paper-based HMIS are widely used to monitor public health care services. Moreover, there are limited capabilities and capacity for quality HMIS in remote settings such as Kayunga district.
Objectives: The quality assurance practices of HMIS in health centres (HCs) in Kayunga district were evaluated.
Method: A cross-sectional descriptive study design was used to assess the quality of HMIS at 21 HCs in Kayunga district. Data were collected through in-depth interviews of HMIS focal persons as well as document analysis of HMIS records and guidelines between 15 June 2010 and 15 July 2010. The main outcomes were quality assurance practices, the HMIS programmatic challenges and opportunities. The practice of HMIS was assessed against a scale for good quality assurance practices. Qualitative data were coded and thematically analysed, whereas quantitative data were analysed by descriptive statistics using SPSS v22 software.
Results: All the 21 HCs had manual paper-based HMIS. Less than 25% of HCs practised quality assurance measures during collection, compilation, analysis and dissemination of HMIS data. More than 50% of HCs were not practising any type of quality assurance during analysis and dissemination of data. The main challenges of the HMIS were the laborious and tedious manual system, the difficulty to archive and retrieve records, insufficient HMIS forms and difficulty in delivering hard copies of reports to relevant stakeholders influenced quality of data. Human resource challenges included understaffing where 43% of participating HCs did not have a designated HMIS staff.
Conclusion: The HMIS quality assurance practices in Kayunga were suboptimal. Training and support supervision of HMIS focal persons is required to strengthen quality assurance of HMIS. Implementation of electronic HMIS dashboards with data quality checks should be integrated alongside the manual system. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-14T07:55:12Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e5ec165123d34df897877ad5134beb04 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2310-4988 2306-5133 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-14T07:55:12Z |
| publishDate | 2018-09-01 |
| publisher | AOSIS |
| record_format | Article |
| series | African Evaluation Journal |
| spelling | doaj.art-e5ec165123d34df897877ad5134beb042022-12-22T02:05:04ZengAOSISAfrican Evaluation Journal2310-49882306-51332018-09-0162e1e1110.4102/aej.v6i2.23898Quality assurance of health management information system in Kayunga district, UgandaHarriet R. Kagoya0Dan Kibuule1Management Sciences for Health, WindhoekDepartment of Pharmacy Practice and Policy, School of Pharmacy, University of NamibiaBackground: An efficient health management information system (HMIS) improves health care delivery and outcomes. However, in most rural settings in Uganda, paper-based HMIS are widely used to monitor public health care services. Moreover, there are limited capabilities and capacity for quality HMIS in remote settings such as Kayunga district. Objectives: The quality assurance practices of HMIS in health centres (HCs) in Kayunga district were evaluated. Method: A cross-sectional descriptive study design was used to assess the quality of HMIS at 21 HCs in Kayunga district. Data were collected through in-depth interviews of HMIS focal persons as well as document analysis of HMIS records and guidelines between 15 June 2010 and 15 July 2010. The main outcomes were quality assurance practices, the HMIS programmatic challenges and opportunities. The practice of HMIS was assessed against a scale for good quality assurance practices. Qualitative data were coded and thematically analysed, whereas quantitative data were analysed by descriptive statistics using SPSS v22 software. Results: All the 21 HCs had manual paper-based HMIS. Less than 25% of HCs practised quality assurance measures during collection, compilation, analysis and dissemination of HMIS data. More than 50% of HCs were not practising any type of quality assurance during analysis and dissemination of data. The main challenges of the HMIS were the laborious and tedious manual system, the difficulty to archive and retrieve records, insufficient HMIS forms and difficulty in delivering hard copies of reports to relevant stakeholders influenced quality of data. Human resource challenges included understaffing where 43% of participating HCs did not have a designated HMIS staff. Conclusion: The HMIS quality assurance practices in Kayunga were suboptimal. Training and support supervision of HMIS focal persons is required to strengthen quality assurance of HMIS. Implementation of electronic HMIS dashboards with data quality checks should be integrated alongside the manual system.https://aejonline.org/index.php/aej/article/view/238Health Management Information System (HMIS)quality assuranceUgandaKayunga districtUganda |
| spellingShingle | Harriet R. Kagoya Dan Kibuule Quality assurance of health management information system in Kayunga district, Uganda African Evaluation Journal Health Management Information System (HMIS) quality assurance Uganda Kayunga district Uganda |
| title | Quality assurance of health management information system in Kayunga district, Uganda |
| title_full | Quality assurance of health management information system in Kayunga district, Uganda |
| title_fullStr | Quality assurance of health management information system in Kayunga district, Uganda |
| title_full_unstemmed | Quality assurance of health management information system in Kayunga district, Uganda |
| title_short | Quality assurance of health management information system in Kayunga district, Uganda |
| title_sort | quality assurance of health management information system in kayunga district uganda |
| topic | Health Management Information System (HMIS) quality assurance Uganda Kayunga district Uganda |
| url | https://aejonline.org/index.php/aej/article/view/238 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT harrietrkagoya qualityassuranceofhealthmanagementinformationsysteminkayungadistrictuganda AT dankibuule qualityassuranceofhealthmanagementinformationsysteminkayungadistrictuganda |