Kenya Health Workforce Information System

In Australia a recent report has projected that by the year 2025 there will be a shortfall of 109,000 nurses (Health Workforce Australia, 2012). However, in developing countries, such as Malawi, the nursing shortage has reached dangerous proportions and currently stands at a quarter of the minimum level considered adequate by the World Health Organization (2014). Research by Chimwaza and colleagues (2014) details recent nurse to patient densities in Malawi are 0.343 per 1,000 population compared to Australia’s figures of 15.4 nurses per 1,000 population (Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, 2015). Poor working conditions and insufficient salaries, especially in more remote areas, are major factors which impact Malawi’s ability to meet the minimum recommended nurse/patient ratios (Global Fund Observer, 2014). The effects to nursing cannot be underestimated, impacting on the quality of care, and majorly effecting nurses morale and professional pride. Nursing performance is adversely affected due to the excess workload this shortage imposes, hindering the ability to provide the minimum level of health care to patients. Gorman & Hohmuth-Lemonick (2009) stated that nurses are often left to work alone, in highly stressful situations. They have also reported that Malawi’s national guidelines are two nurses per shift on labour and delivery wards, but due to the nursing shortage, one nurse per shift is often the

With the existing trend of shortages in healthcare providers and professionals, the recruitment and retention of this type of staff in a rural area may

Healthcare has evolved over past decades and continues to remain an issue of concern for individuals everywhere. Effectively managing data is important to improving the performance in the health care system. Accumulating, evaluating, deciphering and acting on data for particular performance measures allow health professionals to identify shortcomings and make the necessary adjustment, and track the outcome.

Human Resources Services Administration (HRSA) Bureau of Health Workforce (BHW) is a program that was created to help America build a health care workforce. The Bureau of Health Workforce is eager to improve the public health by expanding access to quality health services and working to achieve health equity (“Bureau of Health Workforce”). May 2014 was the month and year HRSA was created (“Bureau of Health Workforce”). The Bureau of Health Workforce was developed through the department of Health and Human Services. The Bureau of Health Workforce combines programs that were already administered through the Bureau of Health Professions and the Bureau of Clinician Recruitment and Service “Bureau of Health Workforce”.

Census data (A), risk management data (B), budgeting process information (C), data obtained from client-satisfaction surveys (E), and changes in the community's demographic data (F) provide pertinent data for planning for the current and future healthcare needs of the community. Available workforce (D), although a concern, is not a factor in quality-assurance directives.

The challenges associated with the HRM i.e. human resource management includes the distribution and composition of health care work force. In addition to this, the issues related to the training of the work force are also a challenge for the human resource management. The relocation of the health workers is also a great concern. Moreover, the degree of economic development is also a great challenge that negatively impacts the level of performance shown by a health care organization. These challenges must be addressed properly in order to have an effective health care delivery anywhere in the world.

The most challenging area Mrs. Dukes faces is staffing. For a well- developed health care system, sufficient, highly motivated and skillful employees are essential components (Saleem, 2015). It is important that we remember people are the most important and valuable asset of an organization. Every position is an important position and it takes skillful and effective people to fill those spots. “Staffing is the managerial function concerned with the procurement and maintenance of human resources” (Dunn, 2010). Having the right staff members is key in running an organization. If you hire individuals who are

The debate continues as to whether or not America is really experiencing a healthcare workforce shortage. This debate continues to rage as commercial areas experience an overflow of healthcare professionals with the option to offer per diem employment to job seekers in these areas. However, rural areas continue to suffer from a lack of professional healthcare workers; specifically, those who specialize in specialist areas. The Alliance for Healthcare Reform (2011) has highlighted the following points as the factors which will be deemed responsible for this shortage:

Training is imperative. There has to be a shift in the orientation of the healthcare personnel. Extensive direction is required through in-service and basic training. The perception of their role as simply delivering government health programs needs to be changed to being agents of health development. They need to be sensitive to the local needs. In addition to technical skills, they will need social skills to negotiate with other sectors, and communication skills for organization and empowerment of communities.

Currently there are no standardized reporting systems for the collection of data on interprofessional healthcare workforce. Hassmiller & Goodman (2011), postulated that the fragmented data on healthcare workforce resulting from research conducted by separate professions are deficient in that they do not focus on an combination of healthcare professionals in a given region.

There are many components that required to building a successful framework for a new health information system. Some of these components include (1) better patient experiences through quality and satisfaction; (2) better health outcomes of populations; and (3) reduction of per capita cost of health care (Feldman, 2014, para. 3). Other designs include several levels of abstraction including mechanical (hardware), informational (software), psychological (person), and social (community). Such an inclusive approach is aimed at understanding interdependent linkages between increasingly complex social and technological components. Working together, these components consider social motivations and accomplish a set of social goals that otherwise

7. Describe the main points of the Pod/Vodcast. Healthcare Informatics is defined by the U.S National Library of Medicine as the Interdisciplinary study of the design, development, adoption, and application of IT- based innovations in healthcare services delivery, management, and planning (Ong, 2014). Health informatics is being utilized to enhance process efficiency. The wave of health informatics began in the 1990’s. It has changed the way we do things from shopping to work to the way we live our daily lives (Kudyba, 2010). Health Informatics has doubled productivity (Kudyba, 2010). Healthcare is slowly emerging into the world of informatics. Many healthcare facilities are now utilizing electronic medical records. Healthcare Informatics will help reduce cost. Utilizing technology increases the speed of routing

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, in the beginning of 2007, funded Health Workforce Solutions LLC (HWS) in their project to create new innovative care models that can establish proficient and successful ways to deliver health care (Joynt & Kimball, 2008, January). In total, HWS selected 24 models of the original 60 care delivery models to conduct in-depth research. Throughout the years, many institutions have incorporated these different models, either independently or in combination. Although all models met the criteria of HWS, and are beneficial in their own way, the Unit-Based Care Manager model will be the subject of this paper. The Unit-Based Care Manager model, "is a new role created for Clinical Nurse Leaders (CNL 's), where a hospital unit 's care team and delivery is redesigned to leverage the CNL 's knowledge, experience, and functionality" (Joynt & Kimball, 2008, January). In fact, one example of the benefits of implying this model is hand hygiene compliance. Results show from CNL Role Immersions Practicum Experiences, that improvement went from 30% to over 70% with just this implementation ( Reid & Dennison, 2011, September 30).

Health Employer Data and Information Set (HEDIS) is a data collecting instrument that the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) uses to compare healthcare services on a side by side evaluation. HEDIS is also a nonprofit organizations that care about patient safety and accreditation. HEDIS is an accreditation program that was initiated in 1991 as a centralized database for employers to assess the quality of insurance and healthcare providers nationwide. HEDIS forth strict regulations and benchmarks that must be met and sustained in order to be HEDIS accredited. The information collected by HEDIS is extremely detailed thus allowing a more accurate comparative for each health plan offered by health care facilities, organizations, and even insurers ("NCQA," 2015). The purpose of this cross post is to summarize the original threaded discussion by Marchefka, Mbura, and Poczontek and add additional information on HEDIS.

I give the instructor, Dr. Ashish Chandra, permission to use this assignment, Healthcare in Kenya as an example for future students and classes.