Introduction
The Department of Health (DOH) Department Order 2011 – 0188 entitled ‘Kalusugan Pangkalahatan (KP) Implementation and Execution Plan’ provides a clear path in the achievement of Universal Health care through its three strategic thrusts: (1) Financial Risk Protection; (2) Access to Quality Health Services; and (3) Attainment of Health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
In particular, the attainment of health related MDGs strategy applies additional effort and resources in localities with high concentration of families who are unable to receive critical health services by using the approach of Community Health Teams (CHT). This approach was supported by the results of the Family Health Book (FHB) Operations Research done in Compostela Valley wherein the increase in use of FP/MNCHN services such as Antenatal Care (ANC), Facility Based Delivery (FBD), Immunization and Modern Family Planning (MFP) among families was influenced by the health navigators. They visited low-income, poorly educated families and provided them health messages through the FHB and assisted them in health use planning and adherence.
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Based on the DO 2011-0188 issuance, for the Scaleup Phase (CY 2012 to 2013), the mobilization of at least 100,000 CHTs should be organized and trained in identifying clients with health needs on FP/MNCHN by profiling and health risk assessment, guiding clients in the formulation of health plans, linking clients to health providers and facilities and providing information to families on their entitlements as PhilHealth members. By this time, they should already be partnered to the 5.2 million poorest families listed in the National Household Targeting System-Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR) and eventually to 10.8 million families by 2016. However, with the implementation of CHT nationwide, there are certain bottlenecks that have been identified. These include: (1) high cost of printing for the various paper forms and materials, (2) high transaction cost for the validation of profiles of household members, (3) time consumed in the consolidation of data (barangay to regional level), (4) error-prone manual reporting system, (5) time consumed in updating the central database of NHTS and PhilHealth membership list, and (6) inability to relay real time information to health facilities to help them estimate resources for health needs of clients. These identified bottlenecks in the implementation of CHT activities may be addressed by the use of iCHT, a computer based application which is an automated version of the CHT tools specifically designed for the profiling of families, provision of critical health information and development of Health Use Plans (HUP). This development was led by Health Policy Development Program (HPDP), a USAID-funded project, in cooperation with the DOH-NCR and City Government of Marikina as the main pilot site of implementation.