Project Name：Health Information Management Efficiency Enhancement Project in Somaliland

Project status：Projects in Operation

Cooperating Country：Africa, Somaliland

Project Description：

Somaliland’s Second Phase Health Sector Strategic Plan (HSSP II) 2017-2021 states that the Health Management Information System (HMIS) is expected to “provide accurate and real-time health information, be used as a tool to solve problems, and provide evidence‑based data for planning and intervention,” and aims to produce quarterly reports and increase management efficiency. However, the degree of digitization of health facilities in Somaliland is not high at present. Hospital operations are mostly manual, and some systems developed by international organizations or non-governmental organizations based on project requirements have not been effective. The country still lacks a health information system that meets the actual needs of hospitals. In addition, hospital operating procedures are complicated, showing that hospital management capabilities have yet to be improved. This project will be jointly implemented with Kaohsiung Medical University Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital to assist in developing an integrated health information system (HIS) according to the needs of identified hospitals in Somaliland, building capability of hospital personnel, and enhancing health information system efficiency. The system will also be able to upload reliable medical records to the Ministry of Health Development, and solve the problem of data collection and utilization of the Ministry. The main project contents are as follows: 1. Strengthen e-health system functions; and 2. Strengthen hospital management.

Implementation Start Date：2022-03-29

Implementation End Date：2027-03-28

Project Objectives：

A. Strengthen ehealth system functions
  (A). Conduct training for software developers and system administrators to maintain the HIS operation
       a. Conduct training for sotrware developers and system administrators to maintain the HIS operation
       b. Conduct at least 5 training sessions for system administration, to train at least 10 officers from the identified hospitals Taiwanese consultants will conduct field trainings 5 times.
  (B). Develop an integrated HIS, which is capable of exchanging data and satisfies the needs of identified hospitals
       a. Develop an integrated HIS that fits the need of the identified hospitals and is capable of exchanging data, and implement to the outpatient and emergency departments of the 5 identified hospitals.
       b. Conduct at least 5 training sessions in the identified hospitals to train at least 10 HIS system usage seed istructors.
       c. Guide the seed instructors at the identified hospitals to conduct training in their hospitals, to train at least total of 350 HIS users.
  (C). Improve the info-structure of Ministry of Health Development and identified hospitals
       a. Install and setup a total of 6 server rooms and servers in the MOHD and the identified hospitals. 
       b. Install and setup the 5 identified hospitals' computers, local area network, to ensure the hospitals can use HIS to ccapture data and upload to the central server. 
B. Strengthen hospital management
  (A). Invite 2 policy makers to visit Taiwan to observe its health management policies for 1 week, and to assist in promoting the standard hospital management procedures after returning to Somaliland. 
  (B). Invite 2 health management officers to receive trainings in Taiwan for at least 2 weeks, and propose a draft health management standard operation procedure (HMSOP) during the training session, and assist the identified hospitals to implement the HMSOP after returning to Somaliland. 
  (C). Conduct at least 5 hospital management trainings in the identifies hospitals, to train at least 20 hospital healthcare management personnel.
  (D). Conduct 2 seminars to share the outcome and experience of implementing HIS.

Executing Agency：

TaiwanICDF/Ministry of Health Development, Somaliland /Kaohsiung Medical University Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital

Implementation Arrangement：

Members of the Project will provide technical assistance and assistance for capacity building.

Current Progress：

To the end of September 2024, the following activities have been carried out:

1. Completed the development of a health information system, and introduced OPD and Emergency Department modules to 4 hospitals. The collected data can be uploaded to the Ministry of Health and Welfare in real time.

2. Invited 2 policymakers from the Ministry of Health Development, Somaliland to visit the selected health institutions and organizations with an overview of the policies and strategies regarding the development of hospital management and health information systems in Taiwan.

3. Trained 3 seed instructors on health information management in cooperation with Kaohsiung Medical University Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital in Taiwan and produced a standard operating procedure for medical management. Moreover, the seed instructors completed training 18 medical management personnel.

4. Completed training of 3 system developers and 2 management and maintenance seed trainers, assisted them in conducting training sessions at 4 selected medical institutions for 13 on-site system maintenance personnel.

5. Completed training of 36 system training seed trainers and supported them in guiding 836 medical and nursing personnel at 4 selected medical institutions on using the system.

6. Held 1 seminar on medical decision-making and service enhancement.

Project Performance：

An improvement in managerial efficiency within identified hospitals in Somaliland.

Project Contact：Feng Ta Tsai

Phone：+886-2-2873-2323#6061

E-mail：f.t.tsai@icdf.org.tw

Signing Date：2022-03-29

Mission：Taiwan Technical Mission in the Republic of Somaliland