The County government of Nakuru has rolled out the use of Electronic Community Health Information System (eCHIS) aimed at enhancing primary health-care service delivery at the households’ level.
Governor Lee Kinyanjui said the system was adopted from the Community Health digitization efforts contained in the National Community Health Strategy 2020-2025 and was being supported by Global Community Fund through Amref Health Africa.
Kinyanjui voiced his government’s commitment in providing an enabling environment for the digitization process saying relevant policy and legislative frameworks to operationalize the system were already in place.
He said the eCHIS system aims at digitizing information on community health services across the County and will revolutionize Primary healthcare service delivery to the lowest unit which is the household.
He explained that the system will be used by Community Health Volunteers (CHVs) to register family members from their units, collect data, and medical records before submitting them to their linked health facilities for use in a sickness scenario.
Nakuru County Director for Public Health Ms. Elizabeth Kiptoo said eCHIS system will reduce inefficiencies that have been experienced in data collection, analysis and reporting.
She added that the new system will also help submit Community Health data in real-time to avoid delays in submission of reports that are important for quick decision making.
County Community Health Strategy Focal Person, Ms. Ritah Ochola said the trained Community health team will cascade the information to all CHVs across the County, a move she said will not only help in achieving the National Strategy for Community health digitization, but also strengthen health data management systems in the country.
A senior Program Officer from the Ministry of Health, Division of Community Health Ms. Jane Koech said her team was providing Technical Assistance to the County team during the five-day training of the 55 Community Health Strategy Focal Persons, Community Health Extension Workers, and the Community Health Assistants and said they will continue working together until the digitization process becomes a success.
By Esther Mwangi and Agatha Agutu
