HeFRA launches digital mobile online information system, assessment standards

The Health Facilities Regulatory Agency (HeFRA), has launched a Mobile Online Information System (MOIS) platform and Assessment Standards for Inspection.

The system is to improve the quality of services it provides to health facilities to make them more efficient.

The MOIS is a digital platform carefully designed to leverage and enhance the execution of HeFRA’s mandate to register, inspect and monitor all health facilities, hence the platform would help improve efficiency in accessing its services, by allowing uploading of documents, scheduling of inspection, and monitoring activities, while permitting users to make payments and initiation of renewal processes.

Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, the Minister of Health, who launched the two projects in Accra on Tuesday, commended the Board and Management of HeFRA for responding to the call to bridge the efficiency gap in health service delivery through digitisation.

He said digitisation was one of the important tools being used under the current government administration to improve efficiency in the delivery of public services, because “if public services become more efficient, they will be translated into higher productivity which will eventually culminate into improved economic fortunes for the people,” adding that, it was the only way to modernise societies to compete favourably in the global arena.

The Minister also stated that the assessment standards would ensure clarity and ease of use of documents, saying the key contribution of that laid in providing comprehensive cross-cutting reference document as agreed standards for excellent care, to advance the agenda of quality improvement among health facilities.

Mr Agyeman-Manu, however, noted that health facilities were going through a lot of challenges for licensing, making payments, or satisfying any other requirements of the monitoring processes, which often led to unnecessary delays and high cost of doing business both for the Agency and the institutions and underscored the relevance of the tool.

He said the challenge persisted because the Agency currently had offices in only eight out of the 16 regions, and hopeful the introduction of the MOIS would reduce the burden, saying it was commendable to see a relatively young institution like HeFRA, spearheading that innovation, and encouraged other health agencies to emulate the initiative.

The Minister urged HeFRA and health facilities to be committed to the implementation and use of the platform, surmounting and quickly resolving all the inherent challenges.

Dr Philip A. Bannor, the Registrar of HeFRA, said the world today was driven by knowledge-based societies who recognised superior knowledge and requisite education, which were propelled largely by science and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to offer innovative solutions to societal problems.

He said improving the quality of health care at all health facilities, would be meaningless “if our systems of assessing these facilities are not consistent with international best practice,” and called for support of all.

Dr Bannor said the revised Assessment Standards, which reflected the desired level of quality and safety standards of health facilities were expected to operate to meet the expectations of care they delivered to the public.

He said HeFRA was mindful of the challenges that may arise with the use of the new software and indicated the commitment of the Agency to address them to achieve the desired expectations.

Dr Bannor acknowledged individuals and institutions including the USAID, Health Systems Strengthening Accelerator, UNICEF, and PharmAccess, who supported the projects with funding.