Abstract
Background: The Ethiopian Health Management Information System (HMIS) has been implemented since 2008 to improve the provision of health services, and ultimately, to improve health status of the population. Currently, information revolution is one of the transformation agenda in Ethiopia. Ironically, as in many low-income countries, lack of reliable data and grossly inadequate appreciation and use of available information for planning and management of health services were also true for the HMIS of Ethiopia. This, therefore, to assess the level of implementation HMIS program and utilization of data generated in governmental hospitals of western Oromia, Ethiopia. Methods and Material: The study was conducted in seven randomly selected Western Oromia Hospitals. A descriptive facility based cross-sectional study design with quantitative and qualitative data collection method was employed. The final sample size was calculated to be 620. The samples were selected by simple random sampling technique. The collected data was checked for any inconsistencies and analyzed by fitting multivariate logistic regression in SPSS version 17.0 statistical package. Result: Of the total 620 sampled population, 569 participated with an overall response rate of 91.8%. Of the total respondents, 504 (88.6%) were ever implemented HMIS tools to collect patients data in their respective hospital. Of which, only 85 (16.9%) perceived that they regularly analyze the collected data into meaningful information. Despite the inspiring message by H. E. Dr. Kesetebirhan Admasu former Minister, Federal Ministry of Health, Ethiopia “….health information is much more than collecting figures. Data have no value in themselves; value and relevance come after data management and analysis…the process whereby data are transformed into information and knowledge for action.” In this study, only 221 (43.8%) reported they used HMIS generated information for a different actions in their respective hospitals. This study revealed that the major challenges for consistent implementation and use of HMIS were incomplete data filling 174 (34.5%) followed by a shortage of trained human power 158 (31.3%) in HMIS. Furthermore, there was statistically significant association between consistent implementation of HMIS program with presence of HMIS reporting format, regular monitoring and evaluation, trained staffs and having regular feedback. Conclusions: In this study, more than three-fourths of participants perceived they were ever implemented HMIS to generate information. But, less than half of participants reported they used the output of HMIS generated information for reporting, planning and decision making at local level.
Highlights
An enhanced and synchronized health reporting system is critical for health system strengthening; since, it can generate timely information for proper planning, monitoring and evaluation of service delivery at all levels of the health system [1]
Development of an equitable and acceptable standard of health service system that will reach all segments of the population within the limits of resources was specified as the International Journal of Intelligent Information Systems 2019; 8(2): 52-57 goal of health systems [3]
All health professionals found in governmental Hospitals of Western Oromia, Ethiopia were used as source population
Summary
An enhanced and synchronized health reporting system is critical for health system strengthening; since, it can generate timely information for proper planning, monitoring and evaluation of service delivery at all levels of the health system [1]. In most developing countries, in sub-Saharan Africa, health services reporting has been dominated by paper-based data collection and storage systems that tend to generate incomplete and inaccurate reports [2]. Reliable and valid health information is needed for evidence based decision-making [15]. To this end, the development of web-based health information systems like electronic HMIS and print HMIS has opened a new chapter for improving health reporting in the developed world and this is slowly taking root in most developing countries [5]. This study was focused on assessment of the implementation level of HMIS program in governmental hospitals of western Oromia, Ethiopia
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