Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Medical Education
Date Submitted: Mar 20, 2021
Date Accepted: Jan 16, 2022
Human Resource for the Health Information System of Ethiopia: Current Workforce and Forecasting the Next Ten Years Need
ABSTRACT
Background:
Strengthening the national health information system (HIS) is one of Ethiopia’s priority transformation agendas. Well-trained and competent workforce is the essential ingredients to strengthen the health information system. However, the workforce has not been quantified and not characterized well, and there was no human resource roadmap to enhance the national HIS. Therefore, this study incorporated the current human resource and forecasting future demand at all levels of the health system.
Objective:
This study aimed to determine the current health information system workforce and to forecast the human resource need for HIS by 2030.
Methods:
We conducted a survey to estimate the current human resource and turnover rate in the HIS unit. Document review and key-informant interviews were used to collect data from 110 institutions, including the Ministry of Health, federal agencies, Regional Health Bureaus, Zonal Health Departments, District Health Offices and Health Facilities. Delphi technique was used to forecast the human resource need for health information system in the next ten years. Three-round subsequent workshops held involving experts from the Ministry of Health, Universities, Agencies and regional health bureaus were involved in each meeting. In the first round, we set criteria for forecasting human resource, followed by expert suggestions and feedback.
Results:
Currently, there are about 10,344 HIS professionals nationally working in the governmental health system. Nearly 95% of district health offices and 86.7% of visited health centers reported that the current HIS positions were inadequate. Among all HIS human power, Health Information Technicians (HITs) had high turnover (22%) at all levels of the health system. In the next ten years, it is estimated that 50,656 HIS professionals are needed for effective implementation of the country's national health information system.
Conclusions:
The current HIS-related working positions and existing manpower were found to be inadequate. To meet the estimated 50,656 multi-disciplinary HIS professionals needed by 2030, the Ministry of Health and Regional Health Bureaus(RHB) in collaboration with HIS strengthening partners and academic institutions, need to work on retention of existing HIS professionals. Besides training of additional HIS professionals to fill the increasing demand should be considered.
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