Kenya's Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale has explained the government's decision to transition from the Social Health Authority (SHA) Provider Portal to Health Management Information Systems (HMIS). The move aims to reduce duplication, waiting times, and administrative work in hospitals. Duale clarified that the transition is part of efforts to establish a more integrated digital health system.
The government had initially set September 30 as the deadline for facilities to migrate, but the Ministry of Health extended it by one month to October 30. According to Duale, the Digital Health Agency (DHA) introduced the SHA Provider Portal to support healthcare providers in submitting and transmitting claims during the transition to the Social Health Authority. However, hospitals have been required to operate two separate systems, their own HMIS for day-to-day operations and the SHA portal for claims and related transactions.
The recent transition aims to make the hospital's HMIS the primary system for managing healthcare services and related information. Duale emphasized that HMIS is not a new system, but part of the wider digital health infrastructure being rolled out by the government. The system will integrate and communicate with SHA and other relevant health-sector systems, reducing the need for healthcare workers to repeatedly enter or transfer the same information.
The government expects the transition to address challenges associated with the SHA Provider Portal, including delayed reimbursements, weak verification, and claims fraud. HMIS will support real-time patient verification, electronic claims processing, and secure provider authentication. The integrated system will also improve the quality and availability of health information by allowing data captured during care provision to flow to relevant systems.
For patients, the government expects the change to reduce waiting times and improve continuity of care by allowing authorized healthcare workers to access relevant medical information through an integrated workflow. The system could also allow medical records, including scans, to be accessed across different facilities. Duale cited the example of patients undergoing medical tests in one location and having the results accessed by doctors in another location.
The Ministry of Health reports that the transition has already progressed across public, faith-based, and private facilities. All 6,427 public Level 2 to 4 health facilities have completed the transition, while four public Level 5 facilities have migrated and 23 are at different stages of the process. The government is supporting 518 contracted faith-based facilities with installation and migration.
Duale assured patients that the transition will not affect access to healthcare services, with a focus on ensuring a smooth migration. The broader objective is to move away from fragmented systems towards an interoperable digital health ecosystem. The Ministry of Health and the Digital Health Agency will provide technical support to facilities throughout October to facilitate a seamless transition.
Key points
- The Kenyan government transitions hospitals from SHA Provider Portal to HMIS to reduce duplication and waiting times.
- The transition aims to improve the quality and availability of health information and address challenges associated with the SHA Provider Portal.
- All 6,427 public Level 2 to 4 health facilities have completed the transition to HMIS.
