Voices from the Capacity Project

At the Uganda Protestant Medical Bureau, executive director Dr. Lorna Muhirwe struggled to get the information she needed to most effectively lead the network of over 250 facilities that play a vital role in the country’s health care. A health management information system (HMIS) was designed to help, but it wasn’t working well: “Data analysis was a nightmare and it was causing us immense challenges.” Her colleague Ambrose Muhumuza, the HMIS officer, uses the same strong language when he describes the difficulty of getting accurate data and using it to make decisions. “This has been a nightmare,” he concludes.

What was haunting these administrators? “We were not able to get timely reports, and worse still, most of the health units sent incomplete reports that are usually unreliable.” explains Dr. Muhirwe. What’s more, “we were not able to see the impact of HMIS in planning and decision-making.” Adds Muhumuza, “UPMB had always faced challenges in providing evidence on the issues affecting its health facility network. It lacked data on staffing, service provision, service utilization, income and expenditure—key in managing health establishments.”

The Capacity Project has two abstracts accepted for the 2009 HIV/AIDS Implementers’ Meeting in Namibia this June.