Abstract
Information should form the backbone of decisions that effect change in all areas. It is therefore paramount in health, for information to be used for decision making. In effect this will bring about equity in health resource allocation. The development of comprehensive community based health information systems is increasingly becoming important for measuring and improving the quality of health services. Many developing countries including Kenya have made efforts to strengthen their national health information systems to provide information for decision-making in managing health care services. The purpose of this paper is to explore how data collected at the community level is utilised by various stakeholders within the community in order to produce actionable information for decision making. This was a descriptive, cross sectional study. The qualitative aspects of data collection involved key informant interviews and focused group discussions with the health service providers; potential health services users, and community health workers. Findings indicated that strong local ownership of data developed at the community. The main perspectives of service providers included joint ownership of health intervention programs at the community level, the community owned their health and aimed to improve it and community health workers to champion on health and development issues to bring about change.
Highlights
A Community based health Information System (CBHIS) is a type of health information system that is based in the rural community and informal settlements of urban areas
This data tools was administered by trained research assistants who had to move to health services points in the study area to the study respondents comprising of health managers, health care providers and community health workers; there were 43 community health workers, 4 community health committee chairmen, 4 public health officers, and 15 community health extension workers
CBHIS has been very helpful in providing information which they use in the health facility to improve quality of health care
Summary
A Community based health Information System (CBHIS) is a type of health information system that is based in the rural community and informal settlements of urban areas. Its objective is to produce relevant and quality information to support decision making. Health systems performance would be enhanced by bridging the interface between the community and the health system and encouraging timely decision making and action based on available information[2]. A Community Based Information System provides evidence grounded in the community, gathered, analyzed and used by the community and has the potential to improve timely decision making planning and action as well as monitoring of improvement[1].CBHIS enables community to follow up progress of planned activities towards set objectives thereby ascertaining accountability. Usefulness of CBHIS is greatly enhanced when linked to Health Facility Information System, and used for dialogue, for timely evidence-based decision making. Researchers have demonstrated that respectful dialogue with communities as equal partners improves confidence, as well as the demand and supply sides of the health care system[1,2]
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