1. HR for RHIS
Angela Self
IntraHealth International, Inc.
4th International RHINO Workshop
8 – 12 March 2010

2. • Dykki Settle, Director
• Luke Duncan, Lead
Developer
• Carl Leitner,
Developer
• Angela Self,
HRIS Advisor
• Carol Bales, HRIS Usability &
Communications Specialist
• Growing team of in-country Advisors and
Developers

3. Systems Strengthening Approach
Data Use for
Policy and
Mgmt
Stakeholder Software Capacity and
Leadership Solutions Sustainability
Assessing and
Integrating
Existing
Systems

4. Six Building Blocks of
Health Systems Strengthening
Source: ‘Everybody’s Business: Strengthening Health Systems to improve Health Outcomes, WHO, 2007

5. The Big Picture…
Professional Councils
Ministry of Health For
FBO NGO
Training Institutions
(plus other relevant Ministries: Education, Profit
Assoc Assoc
Public Service, etc) Assoc
Public
Health
Service HMIS HRIS HRIS HRIS
Workforce HRIS FBO NGO FP
HRIS
Local Government FBO NGO FP
FBO NGO FP
Facilities & Service Providers

6. National/Local, Public/Private
National Private Sector
Professional Councils
For
FBO NGO
Ministry of Health
Training Institutions
Profit
Assoc Assoc
Assoc
Public
Service Comp.
HMIS HRIS HRIS HRIS
HRIS HRIS FBO …
Local Government FBO NGO FP
FBO NGO FP
Facilities & Service Providers
Local

7. Local Needs are different
• More emphasis on
management than
planning
– Leave Management
– Performance
Management
– Scheduling
• Day-to-day use of
data increases value
and quality

8. Information: The Challenge

10. iHRIS Qualify

11. ST1
iHRIS Manage

12. Slide 11
ST1 Will replace this screen shot with graphical report as soon as it's available.
Shannon Turlington, 4/12/2007

13. iHRIS
Plan

14. iHRIS
Plan
Projection
Model

15. Results: Data is now being used to
• Inform and cost HRH Strategic Plans
• Maintain up-to-date professional registries
• Find and eliminate ghost
workers
• Address recruitment
bottlenecks
• Support improved
service delivery

16. Lessons Learned
• If data isn’t used, it doesn’t matter how good the
system or software
• We can’t do systems strengthening from DC, or
even a country’s capitol. Capacity must be built at all
levels.
• We can’t do all the programming or meet all the
needs.
• HRIS isn’t in a vacuum; all of the above applies to all
health information systems. Success will only come
through alignment and interoperability with other HIS
strengthening efforts.
So what can be done?

17. CapacityPlus Year One…
• Enterprise Architecture – Collaborative
development of elegant requirements
• Decentralizing iHRIS design, development,
support
• Developing a sustainable and effective health
information workforce
• Update tools: Website first
• How much does HRIS Strengthening cost?
• Counting the 140,000 – PEPFAR special project

18. HR for RHIS
Human Resources for HIS
Knowledge
Human Infra-
Management and Financial
Resources structure
and Planning Information Resources
for Health Resources
Resources
Human Resources for HIS
Supply Environ- Facility- Community
Diagnostic
Chain mental based -based
Services
Services Services Services

19. Significant alignment on key eHealth challenges
Capacity stood out as most critical challenge among all constituencies
Survey question: "Please rank the top three challenges facing the widespread adoption
and use of eHealth in the Global South"
"Lack of human capital
HR/Capacity 17 22 68 to maintain/support,
particularly in
Awareness 31 3 48 developing countries"
Fragmentation 11 19 45 "Resistance to change
because of shortage of
Funding 15 14 42 health professionals.
eHealth adds work on
Poor Infrastructure 19 9 41 the ground."
Policy (prohibitive/lack of) 15 16 39 "Non-health sector
constraints – legal,
Mentality 11 5 23 physical infrastructure,
Lack of education, etc."
sustainable models
7 6 17
Third challenge
"Different levels of
Lack of standards 7 4 17 priorities (pure
Second challenge
healthcare delivery
Connectivity 8 1 14 First challenge versus developing
Appropriate product information systems)."
development 5 5 14
Number of times cited

20. eHealth Domains
Knowledge Management and Decision Support
Health Workers
Health Services
Medicines &
Facilities
Others…
Supplies
Medical Records Telemedicine Lab & Diagnostics

21. A Framework for eHealth Capacity
Knowledge Management and Decision Support
Health Workers
Health Services
Medicines &
Facilities
Others…
Supplies
Medical Lab &
Telemedicine
Records Diagnostics
eHealth Skills for Health Workers
Health Information Technicians
ICT Infrastructure
eHealth Strategy and Policy Framework
eHealth Stakeholder Leadership

22. Who’s a Health Worker?
• Health workers are all people whose main activities are
aimed at enhancing health.
– People who provide health services – Doctors, Nurses,
Pharmacists, Lab Technicians, etc.
– Management and support workers -- Financial Officers,
Information Technicians, Cooks, Drivers, Cleaners, etc.

23. Building & Sustaining HR for HIS
• There exists a clear need for a competent
workforce to support HIS
• Based on the standards and requirements in the
WHO/HMN Framework of Standards for Country
HIS, we propose to:
– Draft standards-driven competencies of workers needed
to sustain information systems from the continuum of
designing data need, data collection, data
transportation, data analysis and data use to better
sustain a system and ultimately a culture of better
information-driven decisions and better health.
– Produce and publish curricula to support the
implementation of the defined competencies.

24. Building & Sustaining HR for HIS
• Are we are looking for competencies that need
to be added to current skill sets?
• Scoping the issue is very important. Has
anything been done to map the level of skills?
• The Ministries of Health often do not have the
right combined skills sets. We therefore must
identify:
– Roles required
– Competencies for these roles
– Training to develop these competencies
– Curricula for that training.

25. Group Work
• What roles are required for HIS to work
effectively?
– Consider geography: central, district, facility-level
– Consider maturity
– Consider the different health system domains
• What competencies are required for each role?

26. HR for RHIS
Thank you!
Angela Self
IntraHealth International, Inc.
4th International RHINO Workshop
8 – 12 March 2010