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Measuring Health Systems Performance

Challenge

Often one of the biggest challenges facing developing countries is the lack of reliable information for making decisions regarding health planning and resource allocation. In many cases, policymakers do not have a clear and comprehensive picture of where their countries are in terms of major benchmarks of the health system, how these benchmarks change over time, how they compare with countries in the same region or similar income group, and what priorities are in terms of investing in the health system. The health information system is often fragmented, yet over-burdened with multiple reporting requirements from different donors and vertical health programs.

Approach

The Health Systems 20/20 strategy for measuring health systems is to provide and maximize the use of a set of widely used innovative tools to measure health system performance in a standardized fashion. Health Systems 20/20 is improving linkages between health care entities at the local, regional, and central levels, to increase the flow of accurate, complete data in a timely manner, and it is promoting the use of mapping and analysis tools, such as Geographic Information System (GIS) technology, to identify geographic trends that inform program planning and decision making.

The web-based Health Systems Database tool allows users to easily compile and analyze country data from multiple sources to quickly assess the performance of a country’s health system. The project is strengthening the capacity of health information systems (HIS) at the country level, such as Kenya’s National AIDS/STD Control Program, where it is working to use HIS data to improve patient care and program management, as well as more accurately measure the performance of the health system.