Inpatient PITC and reporting
Taking the time to develop a system which allows a program to analyze data and understand how different variables contribute to the large-scale goals is an important aspect of project implementation. Tingathe has CHWs report monthly on key activities at site-level, including active case finding (PITC) and linkage to care. The Ministry of Health inpatient admissions register does not have a dedicated space to record HIV status, making it difficult to determine which and if patients were being tested for HIV. After identifying this gap in care, the PITC Register was developed to help ensure each patient’s HIV status is ascertained before he or she is discharged. Working hand-in-hand with the nurses and clinicians in the inpatient ward, CHWs gave health talks, screened patients and provided HTC services daily to inpatients using the MOH register to record all the admissions and the PITC Register to record HIV status.
At the end of the month, CHWs compiled data from the MOH and PITC inpatient registers to enter into the Monthly Report. The process of completing the report allowed CHWs to see the big picture in their daily activities and helped them to see their progress and any shortfalls they had in reaching their goals. The site mentors used a Data Quality Checklist to verify the CHW’s data entry and ensured all calculations were correct on the Monthly Report. They then took a picture of the corrected Monthly Report to send via WhatsApp to the M&E team at the head office. This double check system saved the M&E clerks time cleaning and correcting data, leaving them more time to enter and analyze it instead. This combination of MOH and program tools has allowed the Tingathe Program’s health facilities to demonstrate their success in supporting the ACF and linkage activities in their respective facilities. |