Improving Data Use at Facility level doesn’t need fancy interventions: Capacity Building, Mentoring and Recognition can take us miles

Abstract

Collecting quality data and using it for day to day decision making are essential components of a well-functioning health system (1). In Ethiopia, a health management information system has been implemented at all levels of the health care delivery system to ensure the information is used for evidence-based planning and decision-making (2). Because it is the basis for planning and policymaking at all levels of the health care system, still the government of Ethiopia is harmonizing the issue as one of the frontline agendas of the health sector transformation plan in the country (1). However, it still faces several challenges, and the changes are not as they were supposed to be. Theoretically, it is known that motivating and incentivizing staff enhance their performance which could improve service outcomes. A recent study showed that incentivizing health outcome improvement is an increasingly important attribute in the health system of low and middle-income countries (3). Moreover, availing and using healthcare data for clinical practices and administrative decision-making by health system leadership is a vital neglected step to improve better health outcomes in a given society