CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – The research team of the Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT) is actively researching ways to improve the delivery of health services in Lanao del Norte and Oroquieta City, Misamis Occidental.
During recognition rites for outstanding research and development projects held during the recent National Science and Technology Week 2016 at a local restaurant in Cagayan de Oro, the Northern Mindanao Consortium for Health Research and Development (NorMinCoHRD) cited the following projects as some of its official entries to the 10th Philippine National Health Research System Week:
The R&D team from MSU-IIT led by Dr. Alita T. Roxas chats with DOST-10 ARD Mel Ratilla in the sidelines of the recently concluded National Science & Technology Week 2016. (photo by Mike Baños, NPN)
“Utilization of Health Information for Policy Formulation, Priority Setting and Resource Allocation in Iligan City Health District and in Oroquieta Inter-local Health Zone to Meet National Health Goals” of Dr. Alita T. Roxas, project leader, with associates Clowie Jondonera, MAN, and Alquine Taculia, MS Computer Science, MSU-IIT (Poster Contest, Professional Category)
“Health Services Utilization and Customer Satisfaction in the Inter-local Health Zones in Lanao del Norte, Region X” by Prof. Stephen C. Fajardo, MSU-IIT (Poster Contest, Professional Category)
“A Geographic Information System Using Google Visualization API for Schistosomiasis Mass Drug Administration” by Prof. Lemuel Clark P. Velasco, MSU-IIT (Poster Contest, Professional Category)
The research team’s focus on improving the delivery of health services to the end user is obvious from the scope of the studies which not only sought the end users personal evaluation of the health services they received, but to the local health boards’ utilization of the research findings to make data-driven decisions, as well as the systems needed to properly gather the collated data to arrive at proactive and responsive health legislations.
“We are interested in the use of information for decision making and resource allocation. We are pushing for data-driven decisions,” said Dr. Roxas in an interview on the sidelines of the National Science and Technology Week 2016 in Region 10 celebration held July 23-26 at a local restaurant.
While the team’s study which focuses on the Iligan Health District and the Oroquieta Inter-Local Health Zone (ILHZ) generated lots of data, they found it was not optimized by the intended end users.
An ILHZ is a form of inter-LGU cooperation to better protect the collective health of their respective communities, assure constituents access services for the health care needs of individuals, and manage limited resources more efficiently and equitably. It usually includes primary health providers, core referral hospital and end-referral hospital, jointly serving a common population within a local geographic area under the jurisdiction of more than one local government.
The Primary Care Clinic at Digkilaan Health Center started in 2013 by the present city administration. (Photo courtesy of Nabela Mamarinta, www.iligan.gov.ph)
A functional ILHZ is envisioned as one which provides health benefits to individual residents and the zone population as a whole. The ILHZ functionality could be gauged by zone-wide health sector performance results in terms of improved health status and coverage of public health intervention of the zone population; access by zone residents to quality care; and efficiency in the delivery of inter-local health services.
“There’s a lack of local ordinances which actually address local health concerns. Our health officials are not really able to optimize use of the data to come up with local ordinances which prioritize urgent health issues in health budgeting to optimize available resources,” Roxas noted.
The team said national mandates are merely being ‘localized’, thus local legislators just make local versions of national health laws, merely cascading what’s mandated by the national office.
For instance, Roxas cited the Dept. of Health’s (DOH) Electronic Field Health Services Information System which is supposed capture health data in computers and make these accessible nationwide.
“But it’s not fully happing yet in the city and provincial levels. Data capture, storage and reporting at the barangay level are being done manually since they don’t have computers. Or, if they have computers, they don’t have an IT person. Also, many elderly midwives and nurses are not computer-literate and show some resistance to the use of computers.”
Although barangay health units are striving to make the system work, most trainings are focused on the municipal and city level, with hardly any at the barangay level.
“Given all these, even if there is supposed to be eHealth, the gathering, collating and transmission of data is still done manually by paper forms. eHealth has a higher utilization in the city, provincial and municipal levels but still the utilization of the system is low.”
“Also, some key local decision makers do not have good access to data. So when it comes to prioritization of funding and budgeting for certain health concerns, these may not reflect local health data.”
Of the two areas covered by the study, the team’s findings indicate the Oroquieta ILHZ has a higher level of accomplishment than the Iligan Health District in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This could be attributable to the Oroquieta Local Health Board’s being more conversant about their data and could therefore act based on this data.
Although data was readily available through manuals and eSystems, they were apparently not being utilized to come up with data-driven decisions to allocate and prioritize health funding according to where they are most needed.
Meantime, a parallel study “Health Services Utilization and Customer satisfaction among Inter-Local Health Zones in Lanao del Norte Region 10” led by Pamela F. Resurreccion, College of Business Administration and Accounting, MSU-IIT, seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of the structure for devolved services of the DOH, particularly the ILHZ of Lanao del Norte.
“DOH has devolved health services to the local level through ILHZ Lanao del Norte so
we focused on what services were availed by the residents, sampled from eight municipalities, or two per ILHZ,” Resurreccion said. “Analysis was done at the barangay health stations, municipal centers and district hospitals at the ratio of one per ILHZ.”
The team’s findings indicate that health services availed at the barangay level are more preventive such as immunization, medical check-ups especially maternal health, while people tended to avail of curative services at the municipal and district levels for more serious cases.
“Satisfaction levels are favourable. We recommended coming up with customer service modules in hospitals and information, education and communications (IEC) campaigns to improve services further,” Resurreccion said.
In another effort to further improve data capture and utilization, Prof. Lemuel Clark P. Velasco, IT Dept. Faculty of MSU-IIT, heads the team seeking to field test a Geographic Information System (GIS) using Google Visualization Aids for mass drug administration of Schistosomiasis in 3 phases: the first and second phases are done, development and testing of visualizations with the third phase for commercialization are ongoing.
“This research will not be useful if it will not be used by an end user. The last phase to be done in the coming month is user validation of the tools by the target users, health officers, in areas with Schistosomiasis cases,” Velasco said.
-30-