Streamlining and Standardizing the Collection, Compilation and Use of VAS Program Indicators in the Government HMIS in Indonesia.

ABSTRACT

Objectives: The current vitamin A supplementation (VAS) program recording and reporting system in Indonesia faces inadequacies in terms of accuracy and completeness. This exercise was implemented to identify the bridge these gaps and inform the design of more accurate and efficient monitoring and reporting system. Methods: A review of existing forms and systems was undertaken and health workers and managers were interviewed to identify gaps. The tools were revised to overcome the gaps and field tested. Results: The key gaps identified were the absence of indicators to track stocks, VAS coverage among postpartum women and tracking of children who received VAS in both semesters. Recording forms also lacked parents’ name, severely limiting health workers’ ability to track children. The forms were revised to overcome these gaps. Errors were also identified in the roll up of numbers from health facility to the national level. In order to empower managers to identify and correct these errors, an easy to use tool was developed. Further, a tool to assess data quality across different dimensions of completeness, accuracy, timeliness and data use was developed. These improvements reportedly limited errors and facilitated the feedback loop toward implementing data and program improvements. The revised monitoring tools and the data quality and accuracy assessments were field tested and found to be easily usable by health personnel. Conclusions: Streamlining the information flow and empowering managers with simple tools can be very useful for them to initiate corrective action. The Government has initiated replication of these tools and methods in additional districts.