Ke-HMIS II EMR Assessment Consultant at Palladium International

Project Overview and Role

1.

1.Background:

Palladium has recently been awarded a cooperative agreement to support Ministry of Health (MoH), County Health Management Teams (CHMTs), and Service Delivery Partners (SDPs) in developing and maintaining Health Information Systems (HIS) in Kenya through the Kenya Health Management Information System II (KeHMIS-II) project.
The purpose of the project is to support implementation of HIS innovations for patient management and disease monitoring along the treatment cascade towards achieving HIV epidemic control in Kenya in reference to the PEPFAR 3.0 objectives.
The project has five key objectives:

1. To support project implementation and progressive HIS data quality improvement for evidence-based decision-making
2. To build capacity of health care workers and Service Delivery Implementing Partners with appropriate knowledge skills required to use, scale up, modify, support and sustain HIS
3. To develop a National Unique Patient Identification (NUPI) system based on the Integrated Population Registration System (IPRS).
4. To develop and implement a plan to transition HIS maintenance and support to Service Delivery Implementing Partners and Counties
5. To enhance Electronic Medical Records (EMR), National Health Data Warehouse (NHDW), Laboratory Information Systems (LIS) and Pharmacy Information Systems (PIS) capabilities to meet technical and user needs

In the run-up to KeHMIS-II, PEPFAR through CDC partnered with the GoK to deploy Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) systems namely; KenyaEMR, IQCare, and CPAD in 667 health facilities. These systems were developed to meet the standards and guidelines developed by MoH for EMR/EHR implementation (http://guidelines.health.go.ke/#/category/26/41/meta).
In line with the KeHMIS-II mandate and for better programmatic alignment, the project seeks consultancy services from qualified individual or firm to conduct an Alternatives Analysis (AoA) to evaluate on whether to continue supporting all CDC supported EMRs or to adopt one of them. The consultant is expected to, at the minimum, evaluate the options of whether to continue supporting KenyaEMR or to replace KenyaEMR with IQCare. In conducting the evaluation, the consultant is expected to assess the feasibility, costed level of effort, sustainability, and the impact in terms of service delivery disruption for each of the option.
The EMRs to be evaluated are:

1.1.International Quality Care (IQCare).

IQCare is an open-source EMR system developed by Palladium on Microsoft.Net framework and MSSQL database. It has been deployed in over 325 sites in 21 counties distributed across Nairobi, Lower Eastern, Upper Eastern, South Rift and Coast regions. The EMR has a dedicated report generation component called IQTools which supports routine and ad-hoc reporting.

1.2.OpenMRS

This is an open source EMR system developed on Java and MySQL. The system has been deployed in numerous facilities in Kenya by EGAPF, CHS, and other CDC EMR implementing partners.

1.3.KenyaEMR

KenyaEMR is a tailored open-source distribution of OpenMRS EMR, developed by International Training and Education Centre for Health (I-TECH) in Java and MySQL. The system has been deployed in over 340 sites in 23 counties distributed across Central, North Rift, Western and Nyanza regions.

1.4.Comprehensive Patient Application Database (CPAD)

CPAD is an open-source system developed ICAP Columbia University using PHP and Postgres. ICAP began partnering with the GoK in 2006 to support the rapid scale up of HIV care and treatment and has deployed CPAD in approximately 69 sites in 5 counties distributed across Lower Eastern, Nyanza and Western regions.

Responsibilities

1.Objective

The objective of this consultancy is to undertake an independent Alternatives Analysis on the above mentioned EMRs and report on their functionalities, alignment to national EMR/EHR standards and guidelines, to inform programmatic alignment. The analysis should provide an objective basis to assist in deciding whether to continue supporting all EMRs or to adopt one them. The assessment will be focused but not limited to following functional areas:

• Usability and perceived usefulness of the system.
• Reporting: Ability to generate standard MoH and customized ad-hoc reports on demand.
• Customization: Ability for authorized users to customize the system to suit facility/program requirements.
• Documentation: Availability of online help/user guides to support system use.
• Workflow support and adaptability for Point of Care (PoC) implementation
• Clinical decision support.
• Security and confidentiality: System access security and data protection.
• Data transmission: Capability to electronically transmit data to DHIS2 and national data warehouse

Statement of Work
In order to deliver the required outputs, the consultant will need to execute the following tasks:

• Develop an assessment inception report detailing the work methodology and schedule.
• Develop tools for system desk review and field assessment
• Conduct a SWOT analysis for each EMR system
• Conduct a trade-off analysis by establishing a weighted score for each the alternative
• Prepare a report detailing the findings of the assessment

Indicative Timeframe
The consultancy is expected to take a maximum thirty (30) working days as follows: #ActivityDays1Inception report writing, preparation and planning42Conduct system desk reviews 53Conduct field assessments164Compilation and submission of report5

Requirements

1.Qualification and competences

For undertaking the above-mentioned work, the consultant should have the following mix of expertise:

• University degree in either Information Systems, Computer Science, Health Informatics or closely related fields
• Deep understanding of software development, design and architecture for an enterprise information system
• Conversant with health informatics.
• Experience in preparation of reports on technology aspects of an information system,
• Demonstrable experience in carrying out information systems assessment including assessing usability, perceived usefulness, user privacy and data security, integrity and correctness of data.
• Good knowledge of MoH tools in use at health facilities
• Excellent analytical, interpersonal and report writing skills

2.Assessment Criteria

Proposals will be assessed based on the following criteria

1. Understanding of the terms of reference (ToR)
2. Proposed methodology for undertaking the assignment
3. Work plan to undertake the assessment
4. Consultant's qualifications
5. Consultant's experience in similar assignments

3.Submission of Proposals

Interested consultants are required to send detailed profiles and curriculum vitae (CV) of key personnel in English and a proposal of not more than 10 pages. The proposal must include the following:

1. A write up explaining
   1. the consultant's understanding of the ToR;
   2. the methodology for undertaking the ToR and achieving the objectives;
2. A detailed work plan for the consultancy.