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Finding Health Facilities in Kenya with the Click of a Mouse

Sep 9 2011

Kenya’s Ministries of Health (MOH) are tasked with monitoring more than 7,500 health facilities. Their job just got easier with a new national health information system that integrates health facility data including location, services delivered, and type of facility.

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District health teams input current facility data into the Master Facility List (MFL). These data provide the MOH with key information to support efforts to improve the availability and distribution of health services throughout the country.

The database also includes an external website that allows the public to search for health facilities.

Health Systems 20/20 developed training materials and conducted trainings on use of the MFL for district health teams in more than 280 districts across the country. The teams were shown how to collect precise data on the location of facilities using GPS instruments. Teams learned how to enter facility data (including location) into the MFL as well as how to generate lists of services available in their districts. To troubleshoot future problems, Health Systems 20/20 created a help desk within the DHIS to support users and monitor the quality of the MFL data.

Recognizing the importance of creating a national, integrated health information system, the MOH included the MFL under the government of Kenya’s rapid results initiative (RRI), a strategy aiming to complete specific, short-term objectives to fuel large-scale strategic improvements. As part of the RRI challenge, Health Systems 20/20 helped the DHIS carry out a second round of district-level trainings and a number of data quality improvement activities. The DHIS received a RRI award from the MOH during the national Rapid Results Initiative 2nd Wave End Term Celebrations in August.

The tool’s utility has already been demonstrated—the MFL website had been receiving nearly 8,000 monthly page views even before its public debut at the forum. The MOH calls the MFL the “glue” that will hold Kenya’s health information system together. It allows the MOH to link service delivery, disease program, human resource, and financial data in one easy-to-use portal.

Health Systems 20/20 collaborated with ICF Macro on this initiative.