Transforming Patient Service and Saving Staff Time at Wada Health Center in Ethiopia
January 22nd, 2021 | story
During a visit to the Wada Health Center in Ethiopia, USAID Digital Health Activity (DHA) staff identified a medical catalogue system failure. Center staff often resorted to manual registration of items, since the computer at the health center usually failed to function properly. This resulted in additional cost, inefficient use of staff time, and longer patient waiting times.
DHA field officers intervened and provided maintenance to the system at the facility during a supervision visit. They re-installed the application and conducted proper troubleshooting until the system started working properly. They also provided on-the-job training to health information technicians (HIT) so they could perform similar troubleshooting by themselves in the future.
After this fix, the health center staff witnessed improvements:
- Live registration of client information
- No more duplicate client cards
- Accurate filing of client cards
- Clearance of a backlog thanks to live registration
- Faster client information retrieval
DHA’s intervention reduced patient and staff waiting times and unnecessary effort. Bereket Anteneh, a HIT at the health center, said: “I am very happy to be able to serve my clients with better customer service, with speed, and in an organized manner.”
DHA has provided supportive supervision and on-the-job training to HIT staff in more than 700 health facilities in its first year of implementation. DHA is a five-year project that supports the Government of Ethiopia to achieve the country’s Information Revolution Roadmap. Together with the Federal Ministry of Health and the Data Use Partnership, DHA is helping build sustainable, resilient, and interoperable health information systems that ensure the entire health sector has the data, analytics, and skills necessary to improve the health and well-being of all Ethiopians.
