2014 Annual Report

154,104 men and boys voluntarily circumcised in Tanzania to reduce their HIV risk

ihadmin — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 20:15:18 +0000

Voluntary medical male circumcision is a simple procedure—it takes just 15 minutes or so—but it reduces men’s risk of contracting HIV through heterosexual intercourse by up to 60%.

In rural Tanzania, IntraHealth works with local health workers to set up mobile HIV facilities that offer testing, counseling, and male circumcision services for men and boys who often don’t have access to such services.

The facilities stay in place for a few weeks at a time, staffed by health workers from clinics and hospitals across the region. And they’re wildly popular. Demand is so great in Shinyanga, for example, that every day ends with a waiting list of clients who will come back the following day.

900,000 people in Jharkhand, India, gained expanded access to high-quality health services

ihadmin — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 20:14:50 +0000

In 2010, IntraHealth partnered with the government of India to strengthen health workforce data in the states of Bihar and Jharkhand, piloting a modified version of our iHRIS software in one district in each state.

The pilots were so successful that Jharkhand is now scaling up the program statewide.

Jharkhand’s customized iHRIS data now provide a comprehensive picture of the state’s public health workforce, including where each worker is posted, employment and training history, specialization, and projected retirement date.

Working closely with the Department of Health and Family Welfare and the State Health Mission, IntraHealth helped Jharkhand officials to develop data entry protocols and build staff capacity for data entry, data verification, data use, and software customization to meet the state’s needs.

$205 million saved by 19 countries that use IntraHealth’s free iHRIS software

ihadmin — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 20:12:35 +0000

Since 2007, IntraHealth’s free, open source iHRIS software has helped countries around the world track and manage their health workforce data.

iHRIS—pronounced “iris”—helps health sectors replace scattershot, paper-based filing systems with electronic records and databases that are easier to share, manage, and update. Officials can keep track of how many health workers are currently providing care, where they’re based, what they’re qualified and licensed to do, and more.

Such powerful data enable countries to better budget for their health sectors and make sure care is available to all people.

And it helps pave the way for new data-reliant solutions such as mHero, a mobile phone-based system created by IntraHealth and UNICEF that draws data from iHRIS to send targeted text messages from ministry of health officials to health workers in Ebola-affected countries.

30 sub-Saharan African training institutions applying innovative approaches for students

ihadmin — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 20:08:04 +0000

Garden City University College in Kumasi, Ghana, is serious about educating and adding health workers to the country’s health workforce. Ghana has fewer than half the minimum number of doctors, nurses, and midwives recommended by the World Health Organization, and particularly needs more skilled birth attendants to improve maternal health. Only 54% of births are assisted by trained health workers.

That’s why Garden City and dozens of other schools throughout sub-Saharan Africa are turning to innovative approaches designed by the IntraHealth-led CapacityPlus project to help more health workers graduate.

The Bottlenecks and Best Buys approach, for instance, helps school leaders assess their current production capacity, identify bottlenecks that prevent them from scaling up the quality and quantity of graduates, and define the most cost-effective ways to overcome those constraints.

Find more tools from the IntraHealth-led CapacityPlus.

967 student health workers granted financial aid to graduate and enter Nigeria’s workforce

ihadmin — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 20:07:56 +0000

Nigeria needs more health workers, but students often can’t afford the tuition it takes to become one.

At IntraHealth, we’ve found that lifting the financial burden reduces students’ stress and allows them to concentrate on their studies. That means they can graduate and go on to provide high-quality health services to communities in need throughout Africa’s most populous country.

$9.1 million reallocated from ghost workers to health services in the Dominican Republic

ihadmin — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 20:05:21 +0000

When the Dominican Republic’s Ministry of Health began reforming its payroll, the IntraHealth-led CapacityPlus project was there to help. The process revealed nearly 10,000 ghost workers—individuals who receive salaries but don’t work—whose salaries made up about 30% of the ministry’s budget. The resulting payroll cleanup led to savings of over $6 million annually, which are now being used to improve the country’s health services.

Now over three quarters of women tested for HIV in hospitals supported by CapacityPlus receive their results the same day (compared to just over half the previous year); the number of pregnant women who know their HIV status in those hospitals is up 15%, and the number of family planning, prenatal, postpartum, and laboratory visits has jumped 517% in one region.

USAID named this partnership among its top ten cases of health systems strengthening in 2014.