Site readiness assessment preceding the implementation of a HIV care and treatment electronic medical record system in Kenya.

INTRODUCTION: Electronic medical record (EMR) systems can yield many benefit; however, facilities need to meet certain requirements before they are able to successfully implement an EMR. We evaluated the feasibility and utility of conducting EMR readiness assessments (ERAs) to assess readiness of public facilities in Kenya for deployment of an EMR. METHOD: I-TECH supported the Ministry of Health to deploy KenyaEMR, an HIV/AIDS care and treatment EMR developed using the OpenMRS platform, at over 300 healthcare facilities in Kenya. The ERA tool was designed to assess site readiness for KenyaEMR deployment. The assessments measured health facility internal environment in terms of available resources, security, technical infrastructure, and leadership buy-in and support from MOH and stakeholders for EMR implementation. RESULTS: From September 2012 to September 2014, a total of 381facilities received at least one ERA. Of these, 343facilities were rated as highly or moderately prepared to adopt an EMR system and proceeded to EMR deployment. 61% of these sites were set up to implement KenyaEMR at point of care, while 39% were set up to implement KenyaEMR for retrospective data entry. Across 38facilities not implemented with an EMR, common reasons that prevented the implementation were lack of reliable power, security issues such as lack of grills on the windows and un-lockable doors, and existence of another EMR system at the site. CONCLUSIONS: ERAs conducted in a single day site visit were feasible and were instrumental in determining facilities' EMR implementation decision. Performing ERAs stimulated engagement of facility-level personnel to cultivate a fertile environment for EMR adoption and ownership. The assessments further assisted in resource mobilization, remediation of barriers to deployment, and increased buy-in from Ministry of Health leadership to support EMR implementation work.

Health facility and health worker readiness to deliver new national treatment policy for malaria in Kenya.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate health facility and health worker readiness to deliver new artemether-lumefantrine (AL) treatment policy for uncomplicated malaria in Kenya. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. SETTING: Health facilities in four sentinel districts in Kenya. PARTICIPANTS: All government facilities in study districts (n = 211) and all health workers performing outpatient consultations (n = 654). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Availability of antimalarial drugs on the survey day, stock-outs in past six months, presence of AL wall charts, health worker's exposure to in-service training on AL and access to new national malaria guidelines. RESULTS: The availability of any tablets of AL, sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine and amodiaquine was nearly universal on the survey day. However, only 61% of facilities stocked all four weight-specific packs of AL. In the past six months, 67% of facilities had stock-out of at least one AL tablet pack and 15% were out of stock for all four packs at the same time. Duration of stock-out was substantial for all AL packs (median range: 27-39% of time). During the same period, the stock-outs of sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine and amodiaquine were rare. Only 19% of facilities had all AL wall charts displayed, AL in-service training was provided to 47% of health workers and 59% had access to the new guidelines. CONCLUSION: Health facility and health worker readiness to implement AL policy is not yet optimal. Continuous supply of all four AL pack sizes and removal of not recommended antimalarials is needed. Further coordinated efforts through the routine programmatic activities are necessary to improve delivery of AL at the point of care.

Effects of revised diagnostic recommendations on malaria treatment practices across age groups in Kenya.

OBJECTIVE: The recent change of treatment policy for uncomplicated malaria from sulfadoxine-pyrime-thamine to artemether-lumefantrine (AL) in Kenya was accompanied by revised malaria diagnosis recommendations promoting presumptive antimalarial treatment in young children and parasitological diagnosis in patients 5 years and older. We evaluated the impact of these age-specific recommendations on routine malaria treatment practices 4-6 months after AL treatment was implemented. METHODS: Cross-sectional, cluster sample survey using quality-of-care assessment methods in all government facilities in four Kenyan districts. Analysis was restricted to the 64 facilities with malaria diagnostics and AL available on the survey day. Main outcome measures were antimalarial treatment practices for febrile patients stratified by age, use of malaria diagnostic tests, and test result. RESULTS: Treatment practices for 706 febrile patients (401 young children and 305 patients > or =5 years) were evaluated. 43.0% of patients > or =5 years and 25.9% of children underwent parasitological malaria testing (87% by microscopy). AL was prescribed for 79.7% of patients > or =5 years with positive test results, for 9.7% with negative results and for 10.9% without a test. 84.6% of children with positive tests, 19.2% with negative tests, and 21.6% without tests were treated with AL. At least one antimalarial drug was prescribed for 75.0% of children and for 61.3% of patients > or =5 years with a negative test result. CONCLUSIONS: Despite different recommendations for patients below and above 5 years of age, malaria diagnosis and treatment practices were similar in the two age groups. Parasitological diagnosis was under-used in older children and adults, and young children were still tested. Use of AL was low overall and alternative antimalarials were commonly prescribed; but AL prescribing largely followed the results of malaria tests. Malaria diagnosis recommendations differing between age groups appear complex to implement; further strengthening of diagnosis and treatment practices under AL policy is required.

Translation of artemether-lumefantrine treatment policy into paediatric clinical practice: an early experience from Kenya.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the quality of outpatient paediatric malaria case-management approximately 4-6 months after artemether-lumefantrine (AL) replaced sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) as the nationally recommended first-line therapy in Kenya. METHODS: Cross-sectional survey at all government facilities in four Kenyan districts. Main outcome measures were health facility and health worker readiness to implement AL policy; quality of antimalarial prescribing, counselling and drug dispensing in comparison with national guidelines; and factors influencing AL prescribing for treatment of uncomplicated malaria in under-fives. RESULTS: We evaluated 193 facilities, 227 health workers and 1533 sick-child consultations. Health facility and health worker readiness was variable: 89% of facilities stocked AL, 55% of health workers had access to guidelines, 46% received in-service training on AL and only 1% of facilities had AL wall charts. Of 940 children who needed AL treatment, AL was prescribed for 26%, amodiaquine for 39%, SP for 4%, various other antimalarials for 8% and 23% of children left the facility without any antimalarial prescribed. When AL was prescribed, 92% of children were prescribed correct weight-specific dose. AL dispensing and counselling tasks were variably performed. Higher health worker's cadre, in-service training including AL use, positive malaria test, main complaint of fever and high temperature were associated with better prescribing. CONCLUSIONS: Changes in clinical practices at the point of care might take longer than anticipated. Delivery of successful interventions and their scaling up to increase coverage are important during this process; however, this should be accompanied by rigorous research evaluations, corrective actions on existing interventions and testing cost-effectiveness of novel interventions capable of improving and maintaining health worker performance and health systems to deliver artemisinin-based combination therapy in Africa.

The financial and clinical implications of adult malaria diagnosis using microscopy in Kenya.

OBJECTIVE: A recent observational study undertaken at 17 health facilities with microscopy in Kenya revealed that potential benefits of malaria microscopy are not realized because of irrational clinical practices and the low accuracy of routine microscopy. Using these data, we modelled financial and clinical implications of revised clinical practices and improved accuracy of malaria microscopy among adult outpatients under the artemether-lumefantrine (AL) treatment policy for uncomplicated malaria in Kenya. METHODS: The cost of AL, antibiotics and malaria microscopy and the expected number of malaria diagnosis errors were estimated per 1,000 adult outpatients presenting at a facility with microscopy under three scenarios: (1) current clinical practice and accuracy of microscopy (option A), (2) revised clinical practice with current accuracy of microscopy (option B) and (3) revised clinical practice with improved accuracy of microscopy (option C). Revised clinical practice was defined as performing a blood slide for all febrile adults and prescribing antimalarial treatment only for positive results. Improved accuracy of routine microscopy was defined as 90% sensitivity and specificity. In the sensitivity analysis, the implications of changes in the cost of drugs and malaria microscopy and changes in background malaria prevalence were examined for each option. RESULTS: The costs of AL, antibiotics and malaria microscopy decreased from 2,154 dollars under option A to 1,254 dollars under option B and 892 dollars under option C. Of the cost savings from option C, 72% was from changes in clinical practice, while 28% was from improvements in the accuracy of microscopy. Compared with 638 malaria overdiagnosis errors per 1,000 adults under option A, 375 and 548 fewer overdiagnosis errors were estimated, respectively, under options B and C. At the same time, the number of missed malaria diagnoses remained generally low under all options. Sensitivity analysis showed that both options B and C are robust to a wide range of assumptions on the costs of drugs, costs of blood slides and malaria prevalence. CONCLUSIONS: Even with the imperfect microscopy conditions at Kenyan facilities, implementation of revised clinical practice (option B) would substantially reduce the costs and errors from malaria overdiagnosis. Additional interventions to improve the accuracy of microscopy (option C) can achieve further benefits; however, improved microscopy in the absence of revised clinical practice is unlikely to generate significant cost savings. Revision of guidelines to state explicitly age-specific indications for the use and interpretation of malaria microscopy is urgently needed. Further prospective studies are required to evaluate the effectiveness and costs of interventions to improve clinical practice and the accuracy of malaria microscopy.