First phase of implementation completed in 16 health centres

MyChild System is now being used at 16 health centres in Mukono District. This first phase of implementation involved training and installation and has recently been completed. Nurses involved in child health service delivery have been trained and started using the system to register children and follow up on their vaccination plan, both in clinics and during outreach sessions.

The first training sessions were held in December 2013 when the District Health Office (DHO) and some of the nurses were trained. Despite the fact that most nurses had never used a computer before, they were quick to learn and appreciate MyChild System. Shuhrat Yusuf is responsible for Implementation and Maintenance at Shifo and has been in Mukono for the past 5 months: “It became clear during the first training sessions that there was a need to spend more time on basic computer literacy: turning on and off the computer, starting programs, working with key board etc. Once computer literacy training had been completed, using MyChild System appeared easy to the end users.”

The implementation in Mukono is now entering into a new phase of user evaluation and support . It is the last phase of implementation during which Shifo will work closely with the end-users to identify any issues or additional needs. Annet Nantume, Nurse at Mukno HCIV, emphasises the importance of networking all health centres in the Mukono District in order to avoid bad dosage and repetitions. In some of the most remote health centres, the System is currently used offline. They will soon be connected via 3G or GPRS to facilitate data flow within the district. 

When the final phase of implementation is completed, the technical support phase will start, where service coordination teams will support the Mukono District from within Uganda and Sweden. Before the implementation can be considered complete maintenance and communication structures need to be in place . From this point statistical data can be passed on to relevant personnel and decision makers.

On the Shifo website landing page you can already see a sample of data that can be produced. The data supplied is from the first three public health centres in Mukono that are using MyChild System and it shows the number of registered children and the number of children who have completed their vaccination plan and are thereby fully vaccinated.

The three first health centres are Mukono HC IV, Nakifuma HC III and Kyampisi HC III where MyChild System has been implemented since January 2014. Health personnel at the three first health centres have registered the following benefits since starting using the system:
- Birth can be registered in the health centres and in villages during outreach sessions.
- It is possible to follow-up on children to ensure they receive preventive health services they are entitled to and complete their vaccination plan on time.
- A lost health card does not mean a need for full re-vaccination since data is available in the system.
- Time for administrative work is reduced as the system supports the work-processes and duplicated administrative tasks are eliminated.

Mukono is a long-term collaboration and Shifo is continuing to work closely with the DHO and health personnel including nurses and vaccination in-charges. The DHO is primarily concerned about the high dropout rates in the district.Therefore, Shifo is putting emphasis in this area and has developed a new application supporting vaccination drop-out management . With this application, children running the risk of missing vaccinations can be individually targeted before it is too late. “MyChild System gives us a reliable baseline and ways to monitor drop-out rates. We are now working closely with our partners in Mukono District on developing and evaluating interventions to reduce the drop-outs and increase the immunisation coverage” says Nargis Rahimi who is responsible for the development of Shifo Programs.