Details

Case

Educator Copy

Monitoring & Evaluation in The Punjab Health Department

Muhammad Ahsan Rana


INDUSTRY : Healthcare

AREA : General Management

ORGANIZATION : Punjab Department Of Health

LENGTH : 21

LUMS No : 30-122-2013-1

PUBLICATION YEAR : 2013

DESCRIPTION

KEYWORDS:

Monitoring,Evaluation,Punjab Health Department,M&E,Department of Health,District Health Information System,Primary Health Care,Secondary Health Care,Punjab Education Department


DESCRIPTION:

This case is about the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) system in the Punjab Department of Health (DOH). There are two major arrangements for collecting data on the performance of Primary and Secondary Health Care facilities in the province. These are the District Health Information System (DHIS) and field-visit-based data collection by Monitoring and Evaluation Assistants (MEAs). The DHIS is based on regularly maintained registers at health facilities and covers 79 and 83 indicators for Primary Health Care (PHC) and Secondary Health Care (SHC) facilities, respectively. The facility in charge reports in a specific pro forma every month. Data is compiled at the district and the provincial level. The MEAs data, on the other hand, is based on field visits. They collect data on 14 indicators which are focused mainly on managerial aspects of the facility. The MEAs data is also compiled at the district and provincial levels. MEAs are employed by the Punjab Education Department and monitor health facilities in addition to their routine duties. They have demanded extra resources to cover their time and travel. The DOH does not agree to this demand prompting the MEAs to stop conducting field inspections of the health facilities. Mr Arif Nadeem, the Secretary of the Department, discusses the data collection process and the indicators used by the MEAs with his colleagues. He constitutes a three member Committee to examine in detail the indicators used by the MEAs. These indicators are then compared with the DHIS indictors and the committee is asked to present their recommendations, within the next three days, on whether MEAs inspections should be continued or not.


LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

N/A


SUBJECTS COVERED:

General Management