A National Immunization Program Review (NIP Review) is a comprehensive external assessment of the performance of a country’s immunization programme. The number of recommended special-topic NIP assessments, such as those for vaccine introduction or vaccine management, has increased. These assessments often have substantial overlap with NIP reviews, raising concern about duplication. Innovative technical and management approaches, including integrating several assessments into one, were applied in the United Republic of Tanzania’s 2015 NIP Review. These approaches and processes were documented and a post-Review survey and group discussion. The Tanzania Review found that integrating assessments so they can be conducted at one time was feasible and efficient. There are concrete approaches for successfully managing a Review that can be shared and practiced including having a well-planned desk review and nominating topic-leads. The use of tablets for data entry has the potential to improve Review data quality and timely analysis; however, careful team training is needed. A key area to improve was to better coordinate and link findings from the national-level and field teams.
BackgroundDespite the advantages of the electronic registry which has been explained in other areas of health and other parts of the world, there has been no empirical research conducted with the aim of assessing the impact of the electronic immunization registry practices on the availability of immunization commodities.ObjectivesTo assess the effect of electronic immunization registry practices on the availability of immunization commodities.MethodsA cross-sectional study was carried out to health facilities providing vaccination services in Tanga City Council. A total of 27 health care workers in 27 health facilities were interviewed for availability of vaccines and their experience in using electronic immunization system in supply chain system functioning using structured questionnaires. The data from the vaccines manual ledger and electronic TImR system were also collected administered in April-June, 2019 specifically for Bacillus-Calmette Guerin (BCG), Diphtheria-Pertussis-Tetanus-Hepatis B-Haemophilus influenza type b (DPT-HepB-Hib), bi-oral polio vaccine (bOPV), Measles-Rubella and Human Papilloma Virus Vaccine (HPV). These data were analyzed by statistical software SPSS using one sample T test and 95% confidence interval.ResultsThe study affirmed that the mean numbers of children registered at the health facilities using electronic immunization registry was 1.5-3 times higher than the target population for the three months preceding the study given by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The number of doses for the studied vaccines (DPT-HepB-Hib, measles rubella, HPV, BCG and bOPV) were found to be different in the manual and electronic TImR systems. Also, the number of doses available at the health facilities increased significantly with the number of the electronic system registered children.ConclusionThis study found that the adoption of Electronic immunization registry has improved the health supply chain in terms of improving the vaccines availability. Rwanda J Med Health Sci 2021;4(2): 223-236
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