NAIROBI, Kenya – The Social Health Authority (SHA) will terminate contracts with health facilities that fail to transition to the new Health Management Information System (HMIS) by the end of the extension period.
SHA Chief Executive Officer Dr Mercy Mwangangi said no Kenyan should be denied healthcare because of the transition from the SHA provider portal to the new HMIS.
“No Kenyan will lack care because of a system. We have engaged all providers in the last six months, and walked them through the journey on what it means to transition,” Mwangangi said.
She warned that facilities that fail to comply could eventually lose their SHA contracts.
“No provider has been ambushed. This process started six months ago, a time will come when SHA will have to decontract some facilities,” she added.
6,427 Public Facilities Already Transitioned
The government says about 6,427 public Level 2 to Level 4 facilities have already transitioned to the new system, although some Level 5 and Level 6 hospitals are still completing the process.
The Digital Health Agency (DHA) is responsible for training healthcare providers as facilities move to the new system.
Mwangangi said the transition committee was established after some providers, particularly in the private sector, requested additional time to address technical and operational challenges.
The transition applies to all healthcare providers, regardless of whether they have a contract with SHA.
Kenya’s healthcare system is almost evenly split between public and private providers, making the migration critical for building a comprehensive national health data system.
SHA To Use Patient-Level Data
Mwangangi said the new HMIS will give SHA and the Ministry of Health access to disaggregated patient data, enabling authorities to track healthcare trends and improve policy decisions.
“We are building a robust Electronic Medical Records System that now has patient disaggregated data. Each patient interacting with a hospital will be visible to the authority and to the ministry,” she said.
The system will also allow SHA to analyse claims using information such as when a patient arrived, who attended to them, medicines administered and when they were discharged.
Mwangangi said the data could strengthen disease surveillance and reduce reliance on some health surveys currently used to establish national health indicators.
Private Hospitals Do Not Need New Systems
DHA Chief Executive Officer Anthony Lenaiyara said private hospitals that already have HMIS platforms will not be required to purchase new systems.
Instead, their existing systems must be certified by the DHA to ensure they can communicate and exchange information with the national platform.
“All facilities are free to choose their provider for the HMIS system, as long as they get certified by the DHA,” Lenaiyara said.
He said certification is necessary to ensure different systems operate at the same technical level and can communicate effectively.
The DHA has established a certification framework outlining the requirements facilities must meet before their systems are approved.
However, facilities will incur certification costs, with the amount varying depending on the level of the facility.
Government To Support Lower-Level Facilities
Lower-level facilities that lack the capacity to transition will receive support through the Kenya-US Government-to-Government arrangement.
The DHA will provide basic HMIS systems to eligible facilities at no cost, while the facilities will be required to undergo training.
Lenaiyara said the support follows challenges experienced during the transition from the defunct National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) to SHA, when many public facilities were still relying on manual records.
He said 6,427 public facilities are now fully digitised and have been provided with systems for storing health data.
Data To Be Stored In Sovereign Cloud
The government plans to store health data generated through the system in a sovereign cloud owned and managed by Kenya.
Mwangangi said access to patient information will be controlled through role-based permissions and strict security measures.
“Accessing that data will be role-based access since it has heavy encryption, and it is managed by the digital health agency with strict guidelines on who can access it, how it can be accessed, and even audits of why it was accessed,” she said.
Lenaiyara also clarified that the US government will not have access to Kenyan patients’ data under the Government-to-Government arrangement.
The US role will include providing tablets, desktops, cloud storage infrastructure and training on software use.
HMIS To Track Medicines And Healthcare Services
The new system is also expected to improve monitoring of medicines and healthcare services.
Lenaiyara said future stages would track medicines from manufacturers through the supply chain to the final user.
The system will also use standardised International Classification of Diseases codes, allowing doctors across the country to use consistent disease classifications.
It will further verify healthcare workers’ licences, ensuring that only practitioners with valid licences can treat patients and enter their details into the system.
Lenaiyara said the government was engaging private healthcare providers to address concerns surrounding the transition, but stressed that the deadline for migration had arrived.
“The end goal is the patient; most of our facilities see this as a good thing. We are moving to a world whereby we use data for all information management,” he said.
