The human resource information system: a rapid appraisal of Pakistan’s capacity to employ the tool

Abstract

BackgroundHuman resources are an important building block of the health system. During the last decade, enormous investment has gone into the information systems to manage human resources, but due to the lack of a clear vision, policy, and strategy, the results of these efforts have not been very visible. No reliable information portal captures the actual state of human resources in Pakistan’s health sector. The World Health Organization (WHO) has provided technical support for the assessment of the existing system and development of a comprehensive Human Resource Information System (HRIS) in Pakistan.MethodsThe questions in the WHO-HRIS Assessment tool were distributed into five thematic groups. Purposively selected (n=65) representatives from the government, private sector, and development partners participated in this cross sectional study, based on their programmatic affiliations.ResultsFifty-five percent of organizations and departments have an independent Human Resources (HR) section managed by an establishment branch and are fully equipped with functional computers. Forty-five organizations (70%) had HR rules, regulations and coordination mechanisms, yet these are not implemented. Data reporting is mainly in paper form, on prescribed forms (51%), registers (3%) or even plain papers (20%). Data analysis does not give inputs to the decision making process and dissemination of information is quite erratic. Most of the organizations had no feedback mechanism for cross checking the HR data, rendering it unreliable.ConclusionPakistan is lacking appropriate HRIS management. The current HRIS indeed has a multitude of problems. In the wake of 2011 reforms within the health sector, provinces are even in a greater need for planning their respective health department services and must work on the deficiencies and inefficiencies of their HRIS so that the gaps and HR needs are better aligned for reaching the 2015 UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) targets.

Human resource information systems in health care: a systematic evidence review

“…: personnel payroll attendance and recruitment system)To outline a framework for analyzing health care process management projectsQual.5.5ImplementationBarriers: individual, project, task, inter-organization, organization, and technologyApproaches to: inter-organization and projectS15Kazmi and Naaranoja, 2014 41 (social science)Pakistan (lower-middle); secondary (hospital) (ded. : HRIS)To propose an evaluation of how, in a small-business scenario, bits and pieces of knowledge can be seen scattered at different work locations and how management can strategically arrange and manage a viable data resource in the form of existing knowledge base to be retrieved as and when requiredQuant.4UseSatisfaction: majority of users satisfied with information system providesS16Kumar et al., 2013 42 (health)Pakistan (lower-middle); NHS (NS: HRIS)To document how HR information is currently being collected, managed, and reported; to identify the gaps related to HRH information that need to be urgently addressed; and to suggest the tools and processes for managing HR dataQuant.6.5DevelopmentExpected benefits c : operational, service, and strategicS17Lin et al., 2010 43 (ICT/health)Taiwan (high); secondary (hospital) (gen.: nursing assistant management system)To compare the results of manual operation and system intervention in assigning work to nursing assistants, in order to evaluate the system’s performanceMixed method4.5UseRealized benefits c : operational, and patient careSatisfaction: different categories of users are satisfied with the systemS18Memel et al., 2001 44 (health)USA (high); secondary (>1 hospitals) (gen.: Intranet)To discuss specific components of the information management and IT infrastructure, examples of the impacts they have on patients, caregivers, and the organization, and lessons learnedQual.2DevelopmentExpected benefits c : operationalUseRealized benefits c : operational, and serviceApproaches to: technologyS19Parry and Tyson, 2011…”

ICT Development and Its Impact on e-Business and HRM Strategies in the Organizations of Pakistan

“…The study [23] described the organizations af Pakistan and found that there is strong evidence that all the changes by ICT are not only time efficient but also cost efficient. However, due to the change of ICT, factors of stasfication and motivation were found among the employees of the organization.…”

“…The model of Zehra (2012) showed the overall impact of ICT within the organizations of Pakistan (see Fig. 3) [23]. The impact of ICT on human resource strategies is also examined by [5] that indicates based on the results from 1,169 firms, companies that invest in ICT employ vast numbers of educated and trained workers, which allows the researchers to confirm that the firms that use ICT have a higher level of educated workers, present higher level of specific training and higher level of wages.…”

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“…Nicol et al (2013) revealed that there was a considerable deficiency in the competence of health workers interpreting the data to address any quality issues. Kumar et al (2013) cited that the adoption of technology, human resource investment and appropriate equipment at the various departments are uncertain. The high demand from a general population cannot be over emphasized in requiring quick delivery of services.…”

“…The adoption of technology, human resource investment and rights equipment at the various departments is uncertain. With the high demand from the general population in requiring quick delivery of services, health managers require high-quality information to inform their daily decision making within an emerging competitive environment; hence, keeping up with new trends and innovative services which other competitors might be offering (Kumar et al, 2013).…”