Implementing Nigeria's Master Facility List: Harmonization with the National Health Management Information System Facility List

Author(s): MEASURE Evaluation

Year: 2019

Abstract:

The purpose of the Health Facility Registry (HFR) is to serve as the unique source for health facility data: contact information, geocoordinates, services offered, and composition of health providers. During the development of a monitoring and evaluation framework for the implementation of Nigeria’s master facility list, a technical working group prioritized the integration of the HFR with the national health management information system. The goal of this is to allow facility updates with appropriate approvals to be pushed by means of an application programming interface from the HFR to the DHIS 2. 

This report documents experience with the first step toward this integration—aligning the administrative units and health facility names between the two information systems. To that end, the Federal Ministry of Health in collaboration with its technical partners—the Health Information Systems Program and MEASURE Evaluation—initiated the health facility alignment process in October 2018. Different types of discrepancies were observed, and valiant efforts were made to seek verification of health facilities by state authorities. Unfortunately, remote reconciliation of discrepancies proved challenging. Even so, as a result of this activity, both the HFR and the DHIS 2 have been updated to include 41,454 facilities.

Other resources to support the implementation of Nigeria’s Master Facility List are available here: https://www.measureevaluation.org/countries/nigeria/toolkit-for-implementing-the-health-facility-registry-in-nigeria/