Health management information system (HMIS)

Why it matters

An HMIS is how a ministry sees its health system. The Health Metrics Network framework sets out the components of a country health information system: resources, indicators, data sources, data management, information products, and dissemination and use [1]. In many countries facility staff still compile monthly tallies by hand, and research in five low and lower middle income countries documented a substantial recording and reporting workload on primary care staff [2].

Key points

• An HMIS holds aggregate data by place and period, not individual patient records [3].
• OpenHIE describes the HMIS as the component that stores, validates, analyses and presents aggregate data for decision making [3].
• The quality of HMIS figures depends on the quality of the facility registers they come from.
• Generating returns from routine encounter data reduces double entry and makes each figure traceable to its source.

In Moana

Moana generates aggregate reports from encounters recorded in the patient record and supports DHIS2 reporting, as described on the interoperability page.

Sources

1. Framework and standards for country health information systems, second edition, Health Metrics Network and World Health Organization, 2008
2. The burden of recording and reporting health data in primary health care facilities in five low and lower middle income countries, BMC Health Services Research (Siyam and colleagues), 2021
3. OpenHIE health management information system component, OpenHIE, 2024