The County Government of Kisumu and Living Goods are partnering to leverage technology to strengthen the community health system in Kisumu. They embarked on a journey of empowering the Community Health Volunteers (CHVs) with technical knowledge on iCCM and eCHIS thereafter assess households and report digitally using smartphones. The digital reporting ensures:
- Provision of reliable and real-time data for timely health interventions, especially during the pandemic.
- The App guides the CHVs to make accurate assessment, diagnosis and treatment
- Eases household registrations and referrals of clients.
- It gives reminders on clinic visits and when to return for review, and can also be used to send bulk messages on Health Education.
Some gaps that were earlier identified in the delivery of community health services before adopting the digital system were:
- CHVs had only done basic training and had not undergone the technical trainings on iCCM & eCHIS.
- Limited number of Community Health Assistants (CHAs) to supervise CHVs as well as limited resources for support supervision.
- Erratic supply of commodities for CHVs due to poor forecasting.
- Manually filling of the MOH register (sometimes unavailable) which are cumbersome and expensive to print.
- Limited use of data due to lack of trust in data and inconsistencies in data reporting.
CHVs have played a key role in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic through health education, case detection, and linking people to care, alongside the delivery of essential healthcare services.