Welcome to the Implementation Starter Kit page, which provides useful information, training resources and tools to get you started with installing and deploying openIMIS in your system. We have compiled these resources with the aim of providing an overview of the requirements of the system and walk you through learning tools we have at hand as your organization takes the openIMIS path to digitalizing your business processes.
If you feel that you require more familiarity with openIMIS, you can browse through the Material for Communication and Starter Kit in this Wiki.
Getting Started
When implementing openIMIS it is important to look at the bigger picture to see where policy, process, practice and technology come together. This holistic view will enable you to assess what type of changes (policy, process or technology) need to happen at each level of the implementation process and how these impact each other. Decisions can then be made on the approach to openIMIS implementation (design and planning) which will impact on customisation/configuration requirements and the project timelines and budget.
Within the context of openIMIS we recommend that implementation includes: resource planning, workflow review, system (openIMIS) deployment, training/capacity building and change management. This page is relevant with regard to training/capacity building and offers assessment tools as a prerequisite to resource planning.
Support of the openIMIS Global Initiative
While providing recommendations for implementation approach the openIMIS Global Initiative does not implement openIMIS itself. The openIMIS Global Initiative focuses on developing and maintaining the openIMIS software, building an open source community and promoting openIMIS as an open source option for health financing in low resource settings. The openIMIS Global Initiative provides the openIMIS software free of charge, as well as providing advice on how to conduct requirements gathering processes and implementation methodologies.
The openIMIS Global Initiative does not provide financial nor direct support for:
Country level requirements definition
Country specific software customisation/configuration of openIMIS
Implementation activities
Operational costs of using openIMIS system
Your organisation will need to make the investment or find partners in further advancing the adoption of openIMIS in your system.
Rolling Out openIMIS
We have provided in the Implementation Steps the details in rolling out openIMIS.
The implementation steps indicated are part of an ideal approach that we would suggest. Some steps can be undertaken in parallel but ideally the stages of Assessment & Planning, Adaptation, Pilot and Scale-up should be in the given sequence.
The steps indicated under Implementation Steps go beyond just the customization and implementation of the openIMIS software as there are a number of dependencies. The scale of the roll out (few villages or few regions, etc.), multiplicity of actors involved in the implementation, establishment of appropriate policies and insurance entity, political reasons, procurement matters, amongst others are factors that have significantly impacted the time frame for rolling out openIMIS in in the past. Hence it is difficult to suggest the ideal time frame for rolling out the software.
In Tanzania the system was introduced in one region (7 districts) in stages starting in 2012 and subsequently rolled out over the course of 2013. The insurance scheme continues to evolve since including development of new modules leading to continuous iteration of some of the implementation steps above. In 2016 within around four to six months (including entry of legacy data), the solution was rolled out in two new regions which transitioned from an existing scheme to a reformed scheme including openIMIS. In Cameroon the scheme was rolled out on a smaller scale (only web solution and some offline installations without the mobile phone component) across two administrative regions in around three months from the point of selection of the solution to training and roll out. In Nepal a time frame of around 7 months was foreseen for finalizing the design aspects to rolling out a new national scheme (and hence the software) in a couple of districts, which in reality was stretched quite significantly due to political changes and delays in set up of the accompanying structure and policy framework.
Assessing Readiness to openIMIS
openIMIS is an application to process health financing scheme information. It connects beneficiary, provider and payer data to manage core data from patient’s registration to transmission of services data and verification of financial claims for services.
To utilize openIMIS optimally, it is best to start by outlining and describing your organisation’s processes, particularly, how information is or shall be processed. The software’s functionality can be customised and user roles defined based on your organisation’s procedures and offered services and in accordance to your policies on how to manage claims. We suggest that you use the Scheme Analysis template in reflecting on your business processes and the appropriateness and relevance of openIMIS to your system.
You will need to consider that with the implementation of openIMIS some regulatory amendments might be required for electronic processing of data, which could have an implication on the health financing/insurance act or any legal basis of your system.
It is no surprise that openIMIS will need resource and material investment to run at optimal capacity. We list down the Resource requirements for openIMIS to give your organization an overview of what this investment contains. We have also developed a Costing Tool, which you can use to estimate how this investment translates to monetary terms.
Once your organisation makes the decision and commitment to adopt the openIMIS for your business process, it helps to know what you will need to work on in installing and deploying the platform. The Rapid Appraisal toolkit will help you determine your readiness to openIMIS and the gaps you will still need to address prior to embarking on the system change.
Communicating and Advocating the Change
During the preparatory work as your organisation goes through the process of defining and analysing the digitalisation needs of your system and determining how this can be addressed by openIMIS, an external consulting support might be helpful, to define roles and actors from the insurance body, relevant ministries (Health, Finance) and involve key stakeholders of insurance implementation. As the platform would require the buy in not only of your organisation’s staff but often the government leadership or other principal, it helps to have a guideline on how you could approach communicating and advocating for openIMIS among key actors. The Community drafted a Communication Strategy that be customised to fit your needs. This is a working document that would benefit from your feedback and revisions.
Introduction of openIMIS should be ideally initiated, once all legal and operational procedures of the insurance scheme are defined and approved. We have developed a presentation that is targeted to your organisation’s managers and principals.