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IntraHealth invests in iHRIS and a full spectrum of digital solutions to support universal health access. Learn more about our progress through our news and updates.
Over the past couple of weeks, I have been thinking about the creation of standardized data coding schemes, particularly for position codes in an HRIS. Coding schemes ensure that data are organized in a meaningful way in the system, which helps to prevent data entry errors and improve the usability of the data for analysis down the line. Coding schemes are particularly important in ensuring that data from two different sources— different...
There is something slightly schizophrenic about working on the last year of a five-year global project. For the past four years, we have focused on developing our software, refining our processes and strategies, and attracting new customers. Our project has been very successful and is gaining momentum. We only just released the third piece in our software suite, iHRIS Plan, last August. Suddenly, we have to shift gears, tidy the place up and...
Last spring, the HR management (HRM) department at the MOH in Uganda requested the Capacity Project’s assistance with implementing iHRIS Manage, the Project’s free and Open Source HR management software, to monitor the number of health workers deployed in the country by cadre and district. In response, iHRIS Manage was installed at the MOH and in two pilot districts in the north this fall. In December, the MOH’s records office completed data...
IntraHealth President Pape Gaye and Assistant Director of Communications David Nelson have published a commentary in Human Resources for Health: "Effective scale-up: avoiding the same old traps". In it, they discuss common pitfalls experienced in implementing training programs for health workers. HRIS strengthening is addressed as an activity that can actually impact and improve training programs.An electronic HRIS can answer questions such as...
As another country sends an emergency message for assistance restoring their data I'm reflecting on the importance of ensuring sustainable back-up plans are in place. Not only must we assist local system administrators with devising an affordable solution we must also automate if possible and check back for status as often as possible. Too often we see back-up plans which are insufficient or exist only on paper, not actually in practice. We have...
In December, IntraHealth International, lead partner of the Capacity Project, received a $49 million, five-year Capacity Project Associate Award (FY2009–2013) in Namibia. The award will further the Project’s successful work in strengthening human resources information systems in conjunction with the Government of Namibia. This represents the Capacity Project’s second Associate Award; IntraHealth International received the award for the Southern...
In 2006 the Swaziland Ministry of Health and Social Welfare asked the Capacity Project to conceptualize a database for the health workforce. The Project formed a stakeholder leadership group, designed a step-solution database, funded data-entry clerks and developed operational procedures.In November 2008, a Capacity Project evaluation found that after direct Project support ceased, a small group continued to improve and transform the system into...
The Capacity Project has published a new Voice on using data in Uganda. These data are collected and managed via several HRIS that the Project has installed in Uganda. Here is an excerpt: “When I started working at the Uganda Nurses and Midwives Council in 2000,” recalls former registrar Rita Matte, “data management was a nightmare! Documents in the form of papers, registers, forms were everywhere.” Margaret Lutalo, the council’s senior nursing...
In a recent post about Linux distributions and Open Source projects, Celeste Lyn Paul writes: The open source operating system experience exists in pieces, scattered across a world of projects and technologies. Distributions exist because they attempt to create a unified experience from the bits and pieces of open source functionality out in that world, while establishing themselves as a vendor their users can trust.Here, of course, she is...
As many low-resource countries make strides in adoption of computerized human resource information systems (HRIS), their demands on the data increase. With greater detail available on the existing health workforce, clients now wish to use historical data to project their workforce needs into the next year, five years, twenty years and beyond. Successful workforce projections can inform potential geographic or cadre areas of risk and training...
