Timely tracking and resolution of missed settlements during immunization plus days (ipds) campaigns in Borno State, Nigeria: A planfeld use case

14^th World Congress on Healthcare & Technologies

July 22-23, 2019 | London, UK

John Momoh ,Dami Sonoiki, Anupma Sud, Iheanyichukwu Uzoma and Michael Egbe

eHealth Africa, Nigeria
GIS & Analytics, Nigeria
Emergency Preparedness and Response, Nigeria

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Health Med Informat

Abstract :

Statement of the Problem: Health workers are required to visit every settlement location and vaccinate all eligible children during polio immunization campaigns. Several factors pose challenges to reaching every settlement are missed during immunization campaigns, especially in Borno Nigeria. Some of these are: (1) Settlements lists at the state do not correlate to those at the local government areas (LGA); (2) Settlements missed were reported at the end of the campaign with visits planned for a mop-up day; (3) The security situation in Borno is volatile, this sometimes leads to changes in the daily implementation plan (DIP) at the LGA, which leaves a large number of settlements missed at the end of the campaigns.

Methodology: As part of the development of a solution to optimize planning, tracking and reporting of health interventions activities, we developed a tool to support dynamic planning, enabling changes in DIPs at LGA due to fluctuating security situations and logistics challenges to be incorporated into the daily monitoring of settlement visits. Finally, the tool enabled analysis of visitation results, visual presentation and automated generation of visitation maps to support daily reviews and decision making by government and health workers.

Findings: This tool analyzes and compares GPS coordinates from mobile devices carried by vaccination teams against those of settlements on the DIP to generate a map and list of settlements visited or missed on a daily basis. Field consultants at the LGAs review meetings, which aid the teams to plan visits to missed settlements on subsequent days prior to the final mop up day.

Conclusion & Significance: Proportion of settlements missed after a campaign has significantly reduced from 22% to 1% and proportion of missed settlements resolved before the end of campaign increased from 8% to 49% in November 2017 and March 2019 respectively.

Recent Publications

1. Touray K, Mkanda P, Tegegn S G, Nsubuga P, Erbeto T B, Banda R, Etsano A, Shuaib F and Vaz R G (2016) Tracking vaccination teams during polio campaigns in Northern Nigeria by use of geographic information system technology: 2013-2015. The Journal of infectious diseases, 213(Suppl 3):S67-72.

2. Barau Inuwa, Zubairu Mahmud, Mwanza Michael and Seaman Vincent (2014) Improving polio vaccination coverage in Nigeria through the use of geographic information system technology. The Journal of infectious diseases. 210:S102-10.

3. Gammino Victoria, Nuhu Adamu, Chenoweth Paul, Manneh Fadinding, R Young Randall, E Sugerman David, Gerber Sue, Abanida Emmanuel and Gasasira Alex (2014) Using geographic information systems to track polio vaccination team performance: pilot project report. The Journal of infectious diseases. 210 Suppl 1:S98-S101.

Biography :

John Momoh specializes in project management and field operations. He currently manages the tracking project and the field operations teams in Borno, Nigeria.

E-mail: john.momoh@ehealthnigeria.org