One of the important decisions we had to make when designing our iHRIS Plan workforce modeling software was which HRH projection model to use as the foundation for the software. We even held a workshop with workforce planning experts from all over the world to discuss this critical issue.
The purpose of workforce planning is to determine the most appropriate balance among the mix, distribution and number of health workers. A new technical brief by HRIS strengthening team member Dr. Pamela McQuide provides a review of different workforce planning approaches and models used to project the workforce. We think this brief is essential reading before getting started with a program like iHRIS Plan.
This brief discusses six different HRH projection approaches, based on a review of the current literature. Although the main unit of analysis in these approaches is the number of health care providers, the method chosen to estimate human resources requirements reflects the political and economic choices and social values of a health system. A list of references serves as a guide for those who would like more information on this subject.
The Capacity Project’s invaluable library of human resources for health information, the HRH Global Resource Center, provides even more resources on workforce planning. These include the publications Health Human Resources Planning from the International Centre for Human Resources in Nursing; Forecasting the Global Shortage of Physicians: An Economic- and Needs-Based Approach; and Monitoring the Health Workforce: Measurement Issues and Tools.
Posted by
Shannon Turlington on 10/27/2008 • Tags: HRH, HRIS, Human Resources, Publications, Resources, Workforce planning
No Comments Yet
Add Yours
The Capacity Project has published a new technical brief on data quality: Data Quality Considerations in Human Resource Information Systems Strengthening. The brief was written by Samwel Wakibi, our HRIS advisor for Kenya, Uganda and Southern Sudan and our expert on data quality.
Data quality issues have been central to the program experience of the Capacity Project. Experience with issues of data quality has particularly been gained within the Project’s focus on strengthening human resources information systems (HRIS) to support health workforce planning and management. This brief discusses concepts of data quality and provide examples of the importance of data management specific to the field of HRH, illustrated by the Capacity Project’s experience with HRIS strengthening in developing countries.
Read the full brief: http://www.capacityproject.org/images/stories/files/techbrief_10.pdf (PDF).
Posted by
Shannon Turlington on 8/25/2008 • Tags: Data Quality, Data management, HRIS, Information Systems, Publications, iHRIS
No Comments Yet
Add Yours
The HRIS Strengthening team is pleased to announce three major software releases in our iHRIS suite of human resource information systems.
We have released Version 1.0 of our workforce planning and modeling software, iHRIS Plan. This proof-of-concept version was developed based on the results of the Workforce Planning Model Workshop held last December. It uses a simplified workforce planning model and will be piloted in Namibia next month.
In addition, we have released upgrades to our human resource management information system, iHRIS Manage, and our training, certification and licensure information system, iHRIS Qualify. Both systems now support customized reporting, which allows users to design and share reports to better analyze and aggregate data entered in the system.
This new release of iHRIS Manage also includes an in-service training management module, which enables human resources departments to schedule employees for in-service trainings, evaluate their performance, and track competencies and continuing education units earned in trainings. The in-service training management module was piloted in Tanzania in July.
Try out any of our systems by accessing the live demos on our HRIS Strengthening website.
Posted by
Shannon Turlington on 8/18/2008 • Tags: HRIS, Information Systems, Releases, Software, Workforce planning, iHRIS
No Comments Yet
Add Yours
As a public healthcare management professional and a former intern with IntraHealth, I have had the opportunity to work with human resources information systems (HRIS). I believe an HRIS is a robust, simple and easy-to-manage tool that Tanzania can utilize for efficient healthcare workforce management.
Tanzania has a healthcare workforce deficit compared to its workforce influx, attrition, and population growth. At the same time, HIV prevalence is projected to further increase the workforce demand. With the deficit in the healthcare workforce and high burden of diseases, the country’s policy and decision makers need to clearly understand the current healthcare workforce situation in order to plan for optimization and strategize interventions to improve the situation.
The Capacity Project’s free and integrated Open Source human resources information system (HRIS) software is capable of capturing healthcare workforce information throughout training and employment. It can be used by healthcare authorities such as the Public Health Association, the Medical Association, the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and healthcare service providers, to maintain current and accurate healthcare workforce information required for correct and efficient response to healthcare delivery challenges.
The loosely manual and scattered electronic information currently maintained by the healthcare authorities can be linked and integrated through an electronic HRIS with verified accuracy and regular updates, thus saving much needed resources that would otherwise be required to conventionally maintain the current system. Similarly, career-related information like relocations, promotions, training and remuneration can be smoothly tracked by the system, analyzed and used for planning and reporting.
An increase in training infrastructure is seen as an option toward bridging the country workforce gap. The HRIS will be useful in determining exact requirement and devising of plan to address the same. Given that training is a long-term solution, based on reliable data, short-term training programs could be devised to improve the situation. HRIS-guided decisions would extend government’s health care policy reforms including private sector participation in health education provision.
Lack of linked information has resulted in significant differences in the number of health workers per capita in different areas of the country with urban areas having better staffing ratios than rural ones. This has resulted into staff ratios determination by existing infrastructure rather than actual needs thus limiting interventions through usual human resource policy means. The data-based HRIS will be a useful tool for balanced workforce deployment to meet health care needs.
- - Bakari Bakari
Bakari A. Bakari (MBA), has served as the Information Systems Manager with the Medical Stores Department, Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, since 1999. He is currently a Hubert Humphrey Fellow 2007/08, at the School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He spent six weeks as an intern with IntraHealth International Inc., Chapel Hill working with HRIS, Open Source Technologies and PDA usage in data collection.
Posted by
Carol Bales on 4/9/2008 • Tags: Africa, HRIS, iHRIS
No Comments Yet
Add Yours
As I have promised, we are releasing versions 3.0 of iHRIS Manage and iHRIS Qualify this month. We will start by posting new live demos on the HRIS Strengthening website and stable release versions of the code on our Launchpad hosting site. We’ll follow that up with complete packages that you can download from the HRIS Strengthening website, which will make it easier to install and try out the software.
Writing information systems is hard and sometimes frustrating work. As soon as a new version comes out, our users are clamoring for new features. We feel like we’ll never catch up with the demand. This can be discouraging, until we realize that the systems must be serving a purpose if the users keep wanting more. One thing we have to balance is the need to create software that is general and useful enough for any potential user but can be readily customized for specific settings.
As all software users know, software rarely fits your specific needs out of the box. We knew that there would be different requirements particularly for HR information systems from country to country and even among different facilities. We have striven to make our software easily customizable by the end users, and Version 3.0 builds on this by introducing configurable modules. System administrators can turn off modules they don’t need or set custom settings for modules without requiring programming experience. Programmers can write their own modules and easily integrate them into the system. We plan to follow up these improvements with a customized report-building tool and customizable roles; both should be available by summer.
Another big improvement in Version 3.0 is the ability to export data from reports in a variety of formats, including an attractive printable PDF. This will make data much more useful as it can easily be brought into Excel for more intensive analysis or imported into other systems.
We are looking forward to making versions 3.0 of iHRIS Manage and iHRIS Qualify available for you. But even more, we are looking forward to seeing what users will do with the software. We already have local developers in Uganda and Kenya customizing both systems for their own needs. As more developers contribute customizations and modules, our information systems can only improve for everyone. We welcome all contributions. There’s a lot that still needs to be done.
If you are interested in contributing to this Open Source development project, please contact us.
Posted by
Shannon Turlington on 3/7/2008 • Tags: Development, HRIS, Information Systems, Open Source, Releases, Software, iHRIS
No Comments Yet
Add Yours
Much was accomplished in December at the PEPFAR-funded HRIS Inventory Project workshop. Leaders from several partner and donor organizations gathered to review the project scope, suggest improvements to the proposed data framework, and define the data elements necessary to capture an informative systems inventory in their areas of expertise. Participants grouped themselves into areas of focus and expressed interest in continuing to support the inventory project. We will continue to work with these focus groups to develop communities of practice and help each define best practices in their fields.
The project team is currently compiling and digesting information from the workshop and will share with all participants via email and the Capacity website. In addition, as use cases are re-written based on feedback obtained in the workshop we will share with the focus groups for suggested improvements.
Posted by
Angela Self on 1/27/2008 • Tags: Community, HRH, HRIS, Information Systems, Workshops
No Comments Yet
Add Yours
