Objective
Khulisa has been part of a massive effort to upgrade health data systems for the Eswatini Ministry of Health (MOH). As part of the Eswatini Client Management Information Systems (CMIS) project, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Khulisa’s local team has been involved in developing, rolling out, supporting, and maintaining the web-based CMIS electronic medical record system, which allows the Eswatini MOH to track health data from the national level all the way down to community and client levels.
Approach:
Khulisa was subcontracted by US-based prime contractor FEI Systems and then later with the Palladium Group (under the Data.FI project), to provide staffing services, technical software development expertise, M&E services, and operational backup for the CMIS.
Our team has augmented the unreliable microwave network connecting Eswatini health facilities with access point networks (APNs) – portable modems that use cellular data via one of the local cellular networks. The use of APNs has helped to stabilize and improve the reliability of the CMIS at health facilities.
The Khulisa team also worked to develop CMIS web-based dashboards to replace the previous, facility-based dashboards, which had to be individually updated at each facility. The new dashboard system synchronizes data from the CMIS with an open-source application called the District Health Information System (DHIS2). The DHIS2 dashboards will assist stakeholders to make informed decisions about resource allocation and disease prevention.
Impact:
Before the ECMIS project, the Eswatini MOH used a paper-based data management system. It was challenging for the MOH to track patients across different clinics and keep abreast of their treatment history. Now, when a patient goes into any health facility in Eswatini that is using the CMIS, the patient’s health history will be available to the facility worker.