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BID Rolls Out in Arusha

By Tara Newton and Mwanaidi Msangi, Communications Team, BID Initiative

Jul 22, 2015

Posted in , , ,

Photo: PATH/Mwanaidi Msangi. A health worker at Usa River Health Facility uses a tablet to enter information from a child health card into the new national electronic immunization system.

Photo: PATH/Mwanaidi Msangi. A health worker at Usa River Health Facility uses a tablet to enter information from a child health card into the new national electronic immunization system.

At the end of last month, the BID Initiative officially launched interventions in Arusha, our pilot region in Tanzania! We began with a handful of facilities to user test the new national electronic immunization system and incorporated feedback before expanding to additional facilities. This is a culmination of major efforts in establishing partnerships, identifying the most pressing immunization data-related challenges and fine-tuning interventions to solve them.

During this phase of the BID Initiative, we will roll out interventions to all 253 facilities in the Arusha region over the course of this year and into early 2016. Implementation specialists will visit each facility five times to ensure that tools are successfully implemented and that the staff are trained in how to use the immunization data collected to make informed decisions and better deliver their services to reach more children with life-protecting vaccines.

Photo: PATH/Mwanaidi Msangi. Health workers at Mareu Health Facility display the data use campaign posters that will be placed in facilities to encourage health workers to use data in a meaningful way. (Translation: Accurate data is essential for sustainable immunization programs).

Photo: PATH/Mwanaidi Msangi. Health workers at Mareu Health Facility display the data use campaign posters that will be placed in facilities to encourage health workers to use data in a meaningful way. (Translation: Accurate data is essential for sustainable immunization programs).

We continue to optimize our implementation strategy based on lessons learned with the first facility visits and will hold regular progress review meetings with partners and stakeholders to ensure success. To date, health workers have expressed excitement over the BID Initiative’s potential and particularly the use of tablets to enter information into the national electronic immunization registry since it will cut down on the amount of paper forms.

Sister Nzyavake Mwengesyale from the Baraa Health Facility said, “This is so exciting, I have seen nurses working in the immunization department filling in many books and had a difficult time analyzing data they are collecting everyday. When it comes to the end of month, it is a very busy time for them when writing reports so this will definitely help raise our performance.”

Photo: PATH/Mwanaidi Msangi. Health workers at Usa River Health Facility using the new electronic immunization system to provide service to a mother and her baby.

Photo: PATH/Mwanaidi Msangi. Health workers at Usa River Health Facility using the new electronic immunization system to provide service to a mother and her baby.

Follow along with us on our interactive demonstration country map where we will update progress facility-by-facility and stay tuned for more updates as we share stories, lessons learned, and photos from the field!

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One thought on “BID Rolls Out in Arusha”

  1. As a new recruit, I had truly solid excitement about the whole BID Initiative since day one. Wrapped by the hunger to learn the stuff,is this blog and certainly Newton and Msangi’s manuscript that made me feel a guest of honor in a single click; but too,still poising to count my blessings, give it time and a mega quality all-sensing curiosity to get the thing soluble.

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