Information and Data Management in UCMB Health Units (HMIS) - Uganda

Launched in September 2004, the idea behind this ambitious project was to use ICTs to implement the Health Management Information System (HMIS) initiative, implemented by Uganda Catholic Medical Bureau (UCMB), on a scale that would take in over 27 hospitals across Uganda. Through extensive staff training and the implementation of database across the participating hospitals, the overarching goal of the project is to improve access to information and communication between the health institutions and especially between the health institutions and UCMB in Kampala.  

Improving efficiency of health care delivery.

Read more about IICD’s Uganda Country Programme.

Tremendous progress has been made so far: record numbers of hospital managers and assistants have been trained; all hospitals have set up an electronic database linking outputs (medical treatments) to inputs (mainly financial): It is now possible to indicate the costs of a medical treatment, to see if an out-patient department is working effectively, amongst other things. The project also enabled timeliness of report submission through the use of internet.

Key figures:

• Strengthening of 27 hospitals
• Project was adoped by another 10 hsopitals
• A total of 65% of the hospitals in Uganda make use of the outcomes of this project)
• As a spin-off, the UCMB website is now offering Continuous Medical Education (CME) training modules online.

1. Improved access to information and communication between the health institutions and especially between the health institutions and UCMB in Kampala by strengthening the current information and communication technology;
2. Timely feed back by soliciting changes in the management process of the HMIS;
3. Improved monitoring tools for enhancing the management of the health institutions;
4. Appropriate human capacity at the technical and managerial level in order to ensure that the data evolving from the HMIS are leading to an improved management of the respective health institutions;
5. Recognised and acknowledged role of HMIS  in the  Health Sector.

Strong contribution to organizational development of hospitals.

Read more about IICD’s approach towards health.

On the downside, persistent connectivity problems, slow and unreliable internet access, as well as occasional hardware breakdowns, seriously delayed project activities during 2005.  However this situation was addressed in 2006 and the project achieved its planned objectives only 6-9 months later than originally expected.

Critical success factors contributing to the results according to project staff and end-users of the project were :

1.       Hospitals are able to sustain maintenance (end-users directly contact maintenance team with their support questions) and the service costs (including replacement), and renewal of subscriptions (internet).

2.       Staff retention (stability) of the trained administrators: continuous training turned out to be a motivation factor for them. However, this is not the case for other medical professionals which are on higher demand than other workers in hospitals and therefore have much higher staff turnover rates. An additional reason explaining why staff turnover is lower for administrators, is because institutions belong to certain religious congregations and most administrative staff belong to these congregations so they feel more committed and attached to the institutions.

3.       Knowledge sharing within the UCMB network between professionals helped them to solve problems.

4.       Continuous support from UCMB data team as well as the system administrators.

Uganda Catholic Medical Bureau (UCMB) is the health office of the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) in Uganda and is the technical arm of the Health Commission dealing with health related matters. UCMB is an umbrella organisation gathering 27 hospitals, 230 Lower Level Units (LLUs) and 14 Health Training Institutions belonging to the Catholic Church. UCMB alone provides about 40% of the overall health services in the country and has an important role in civil society building and policy influencing.

The project has allowed strengthening of 27 hospitals and was adoped by another 10 hospitals

(in total 65% of the hospitals in Uganda make use of the outcomes of this project)