Nitin K Joshi1, Pankaj Bhardwaj2, Praveen Suthar3, Vibha Joshi4. 1. PhD Scholar, Department of Community Medicine and Family Medicine and Demonstrator, School of Public Health, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Jodhpur. 2. Additional Professor, Department of Community Medicine and Family Medicine and Coordinator, School of Public Health, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Jodhpur. 3. Research Associate, School of Public Health, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Jodhpur. 4. Scientist "C", Resource Centre, Health Technology Assessment, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Jodhpur.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: ASHA-Soft is the pioneer e-Health program which was launched to manage online payment and for monitoring performance of ASHA workers in Rajasthan. There is a paucity of studies which documents the feasibility and effectiveness of this program with aim to assess the feasibility and effectiveness of ASHA-Soft program. METHODS: Study was conducted in Jodhpur using quantitative and qualitative method. Primary and secondary data approach was used to assess feasibility and effectiveness of ASHA-Soft. Purposive sampling was done to recruit 150 ASHA workers having experience of more than 5 years to capture the perception before and after implementation of ASHA-Soft. Qualitative data was also obtained from ASHA workers and key stakeholders. To assess the effectiveness secondary data was obtained from various sources was analyzed. RESULTS: Mean age of participants were 35.51+ 6.7 years. Most of ASHAs agreed that ASHA-Soft mediated timely payment (68%) and payment according to their performance (81%). It also increased their motivational level (96%).There were no significant difference in different work experience of ASHAs and perception towards ASHA-Soft regarding timely payment (p=0.99), improving quality of life (p=0.66) and motivation level (p=0.40). This program has provided standard online procedure of online payment and monitoring for ASHAs. Incentives received by ASHAs increased to 77%, performance increased by 7% and 9% for maternal health and child health respectively within one year of its initial implementation. CONCLUSIONS: Study finding demonstrate that ASHA-Soft program is acceptable to the users and is effective in terms of meeting organizational requirement. This is an Open Access article. Authors own copyright of their articles appearing in the Journal of Public Health Informatics. Readers may copy articles without permission of the copyright owner(s), as long as the author and OJPHI are acknowledged in the copy and the copy is used for educational, not-for-profit purposes.
OBJECTIVE: ASHA-Soft is the pioneer e-Health program which was launched to manage online payment and for monitoring performance of ASHA workers in Rajasthan. There is a paucity of studies which documents the feasibility and effectiveness of this program with aim to assess the feasibility and effectiveness of ASHA-Soft program. METHODS: Study was conducted in Jodhpur using quantitative and qualitative method. Primary and secondary data approach was used to assess feasibility and effectiveness of ASHA-Soft. Purposive sampling was done to recruit 150 ASHA workers having experience of more than 5 years to capture the perception before and after implementation of ASHA-Soft. Qualitative data was also obtained from ASHA workers and key stakeholders. To assess the effectiveness secondary data was obtained from various sources was analyzed. RESULTS: Mean age of participants were 35.51+ 6.7 years. Most of ASHAs agreed that ASHA-Soft mediated timely payment (68%) and payment according to their performance (81%). It also increased their motivational level (96%).There were no significant difference in different work experience of ASHAs and perception towards ASHA-Soft regarding timely payment (p=0.99), improving quality of life (p=0.66) and motivation level (p=0.40). This program has provided standard online procedure of online payment and monitoring for ASHAs. Incentives received by ASHAs increased to 77%, performance increased by 7% and 9% for maternal health and child health respectively within one year of its initial implementation. CONCLUSIONS: Study finding demonstrate that ASHA-Soft program is acceptable to the users and is effective in terms of meeting organizational requirement. This is an Open Access article. Authors own copyright of their articles appearing in the Journal of Public Health Informatics. Readers may copy articles without permission of the copyright owner(s), as long as the author and OJPHI are acknowledged in the copy and the copy is used for educational, not-for-profit purposes.
Entities:
Keywords:
Community Health Workers; Employee Performance Appraisal; Feasibility Study; Online system; Program Evaluation
Authors: Neha Mantri; Nitin K Joshi; Pankaj Bhardwaj; Balwant Manda; Vibha Joshi; Kuldeep Singh; Rakesh Passi Journal: J Family Med Prim Care Date: 2022-05-14
Authors: Ajay Gajanan Phatak; Somashekhar M Nimbalkar; Abhijit S Prabhughate; Anagha A Mahajani; Satvik C Bansal Journal: J Family Med Prim Care Date: 2021-08-27