1. Using Data to Inform Community-Level Management
ROUTINE HEALTH INFORMATION SYSTEMS
A Curriculum on Basic Concepts and Practice
MODULE 6:
RHIS Data Demand and Use
SESSION 4:
Using Data to Inform Community-Level Management
The complete RHIS curriculum is available here: routine-health-information-systems/rhis-curriculum

2. Session 4: Learning Objectives
Explain the importance of data at community level for the management of health services
Demonstrate the skills to use data for problem identification, analysis, and action at community level

3. Data Collection at Community level
Data of target population
Population registry
Orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) registry
Pregnant women registry; <1 children registry, etc.
Individual and/or household data
Demographic data
Health conditions and treatment/services data
Socioeconomic data
Aggregate service data
ANC 1; ANC 4, vaccination, malaria, <5 pneumonia
Logistics data
Outreach activities
Start with brainstorming on this topic. Inform the participants that in this session we will be discussing mostly the use of information collected by the community-based health information system. To begin with, we will first look at what type of data is collected at the community level, and then examine who uses those data and for what purposes. Then will review examples of data use at the community level.
Ask the participants to list the various data sets/elements that are collected by community health workers, paid or volunteers, trained or untrained.
Match their responses with those on the slide.

4. Tools Uses for Data Collection
Registers
Health cards
Tally sheets
Tablets/computers
Mobile phones
Pictorial cards/books (used by less literate community health workers, or CHWs)
Ask the participants what tools are used by the community health workers/service providers to collect data. Emphasize that both paper-based and electronic systems are in use now, ranging from pictorial data collection tools for relatively less literate CHWs to the use of IT.

5. Who Uses the Data? CHWs/care providers Health facility managers
CHW supervisors
District managers
National health strategists and planners
Policy advocates
Community; e.g.
Mothers’ group
Civil society
Human right activists
Village/community council
Civil administration
Brainstorm on who use the data that CHWs collect at the community level. (Note: Here we are not talking about survey or census data that are also collected at the community level, but rather data that are collected by staff trained and engaged for only that purpose.)
Match the responses to the suggested users given on the slide. Allow discussion for clarity and/or for expanding the list.

6. Purpose of Data Use at Community Level
By CHWs
Identify individual patients/clients and households
Identify missed opportunities
Promote continuity of care
Plan outreach activities
Follow up on referrals
Detect early warning signals of disease outbreaks
Community
Monitor met and unmet community health needs
Advocacy: for services, resources, service utilization, community participation
Accountability
Inform participants that in this session, we will particularly focus on the use of data at the community level. So, we focus on the CHWs or other community-level service providers (e.g. health promoters and OVC coordinators) who are also responsible for data collection. We’ll discuss how they use the data that they collect.
We’ll also focus on the community itself: how can or does the community use the information collected at the community level by the CHWs and other service providers?
Brainstorm on the different uses of the data collected at the community level: for what purposes do the CHWs and the community use the data? Data collected by the CHWs have a wide range of uses both for the CHWs themselves and for the community.
Match the responses to the suggested users given on the slide. Allow discussion for clarity and/or for expanding the list.

7. Is Information Use at Community Level Helpful?
Experience from Ethiopia
Video on: “Small Package…Big Impact” (
Case Study 1: CHIS in Action in the SNNPR, Ethiopia
Case Study: Analysis and Use of Data at the Community Level
Inform the participants that we will watch a video on the community health information system (CHIS) in Ethiopia. This video will tell us about how the health extension workers (HEWs) at the health posts organize individual and household data to improve service delivery.
Following the video, allow 5 minutes for reflection on the video, and inform that next we will have two case studies on information use at the community level.

8. ROUTINE HEALTH INFORMATION SYSTEMS
A Curriculum on Basic Concepts and Practice
This presentation was produced with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the terms of MEASURE Evaluation cooperative agreement AID-OAA-L MEASURE Evaluation is implemented by the Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partnership with ICF International; John Snow, Inc.; Management Sciences for Health; Palladium; and Tulane University. The views expressed in this presentation do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States government.