Terms of reference consultancy services to conduct an evaluation of the Impilo Electronic Health Records (EHR) system in Zimbabwe.

job Description

Title: Terms of Reference: Consultancy services to conduct an evaluation of the Impilo Electronic Health Records (EHR) system in Zimbabwe.

Location: The duty station is Harare, Zimbabwe. However, the consultant maybe required to travel to health facilities in other provinces.

Timeframes: Anticipated dates: Start date 01 October 2024; end date 28 February 2025, duration 30 working days

Purpose of this consultancy:
The objective of this consultancy is to engage a qualified consultant to conduct an evaluation on the implementation of the Impilo EHR system.

Background:
In 2016, the Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC), with the support of its stakeholders, came up with a comprehensive, patient-centric integrated national EHR solution called Impilo (meaning ‘life’ in the local language of IsiNdebele or ‘health’ in IsiZulu). Impilo was designed and developed by a 100% Zimbabwean technical team under the MoHCC with the support of its partners. In the Zimbabwean and the MoHCC context, Impilo describes an ecosystem of interoperable or integrated solutions/applications that communicate through a health information exchange framework. Within that framework or ecosystem is a point of care solution called Impilo EHR. The Impilo EHR system assists the MoHCC and its stakeholders at the national, provincial, district and health care facility levels to collect key strategic information (SI) required to measure progress towards achieving epidemic control and generate a strong evidence base for informed program decision-making in Zimbabwe. Since then, several changes in the program have been made including major modifications to the system’s features, provision of site technical and clinical support, and institution of new partners to assist in the system implementation.

Duties and Responsibilities

The process evaluation key objectives are as follows:
-To understand stakeholder perceptions of Impilo EHR
-To describe the processes used to develop, deploy, implement, and support Impilo EHR
-To describe key factors impacting Impilo EHR system development, deployment, and implementation/use and achievement of project goals

The questions guiding the evaluation are as follows:
-To what extent has the Impilo EHR software been developed, deployed, and supported as intended?
-To what degree are the resources (material and human) used to support Impilo implementation adequate?
-What are the levels of Impilo system use, acceptance, adoption, and satisfaction among system users?
-What is the level of Impilo EHR availability, accessibility, and coverage?
-What internal and external factors are impacting EHR system strategic planning, development, deployment, implementation/use, and achievement of project goals?

Methodology for the evaluation:
-The process evaluation will involve quantitative and qualitative methods to assess the implementation of the Impilo EHR project and to make actionable recommendations.
-The Impilo EHR process evaluation will be carried out through participation of relevant stakeholders including MoHCC, implementing partners, and health facility staff.
-Field visits for data collection are envisioned.
-Data collected should be disaggregated (by sex, age, and location), where possible.
-Data will be mainly collected from various information sources through: a comprehensive desk review and analysis of relevant documents, reports, information, data/statistics, etc.; stakeholders’ key informant interviews; survey.

Scope of Work:
The consultant will provide evaluation services in assessing the implementation of Impilo EHR to understand the potential impact on use for service delivery. The consultant will be tasked with the following activities:

Conduct a comprehensive desk review of documents describing the Impilo EHR implementation processes and components. These will include documents that describe the software development and deployment processes; resources supporting project implementation; stakeholders’ perceptions about data accessibility and availability as well as levels of acceptance, adoption, satisfaction, and sustained use among users.
Engage with key stakeholders, including healthcare providers to gather feedback on the above highlighted issues above through a survey and key informant interviews (anticipated sample: KIIs – 20, survey – 400)
Analyse data from the survey and interviews. Consultant is expected to have appropriate quantitative and qualitative data analysis software.
Present the findings and actionable recommendations to MoHCC and relevant stakeholders and incorporate feedback into the final report.
Prepare and submit the final narrative report and presentation.

Qualifications and Experience

The consultant must have the following expertise and qualifications:
-At least a master’s degree in programme monitoring and evaluation or a related field
-Extensive expertise, knowledge, and experience in the field of evaluation of information systems in health programmes
-Experience working with health information systems / electronic health records systems.
-Experience supporting programme monitoring and evaluation activities
-Familiarity with health information systems
-A track record and traceable reference of excellent quantitative and qualitative data collection, analysis, and report writing. Samples from previous work will be required.
-Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.

How to Apply

If you are an organization or individual, who is interested and is available during the timeframe, please submit your proposal package. The proposal package should be submitted by e-mail to: [email protected] c/o Procurement Committee or as physical copies to the attention of the Procurement Committee Chairperson at 10 Natal Road, Belgravia, Harare, by the closing date and time stated. This request for proposals does not obligate MoHCC/Zim-TTECH to award a contract, nor does it commit MoHCC/Zim-TTECH to pay any costs incurred in the preparation and submission of the proposal.

Documents to submit:
Letter of confirmation of interest and availability including a brief description of why the individual/team considers him/herself/themself as the most suitable for the assignment.
Personal CVs of the lead evaluator and team members indicating all past relevant experience from similar projects as well as contact details (email and telephone number) and at least three (3) professional references.
Technical proposal including a methodology on how he/she/they will approach and complete the assignment (max 6 pages).
Financial proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs. The financial proposal must be submitted as a separate attachment.
At least one (1) past evaluation report from similar evaluations.

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