Kilifi Kids

The Kilifi Kids project connects hospitals and community health workers for the world’s most vulnerable. It has used cell phones and other tools to identify and track patients and optimize scarce community resources to improve the health of entire populations.

OUTCOMES: See the attached. This is 3 year study of 1 site of ours (Kilala) that gives some sense of our work. It is a bit overkill for what you need it to be for our District book but you can note the following:

• Patients utilizing of outpatient services has increased by 33.5% since project initiation
• Pregnant mothers utilizing antenatal services at Kilala Health facility services increased by 10.6%
• The number of fully immunized children has increased by 84.7% in this community
• Helped reduce diarrhea related diseases-mothers by 46% in this community

OUR SOLUTION: We don’t bring the kids to the clinic— webring the clinic to the kids. We’re going to be taking the medical care to the mothers and children who need it most. Our efforts will be through the cell phone and leverages the existing mobile network–providing a new and cost-effective avenue to provide health to the rural poor.

The project work provides CHWs with a more direct link to the health system and how to manage patients and follow-up care in the community. Equipped with their mobile phone and a solar charger, community health workers (or CHWs) can register every pregnancy and infant in their community, report danger signs to clinical teams, refer sick patients to medical facilities, and coordinate expecting mothers to deliver their babies by a skilled birth attendant.

The project's mobile system automates scheduled reminders about future visits: once a CHW receives a notification of an upcoming appointment for a patient, they now make a home visit to encourage a visit to the health facility.

At the same time, the nurse at the health facility now has a more robust system to assess the health status of all patients and ensure a more engaged workforce with better communication.

How have we improved the health of the population?

1. Reduction of communicable diseases
2. Reduction of malnutrition cases
3. Reduced maternal death
4. Increase in health education
5. Increased disease surveillance therefore making informed policies
6. Improved on health habits
7. Improved on hand washing
8. Improved health of school going children
9. Referrals of patient from level 1 to level 11 and vice versa
10. Improvement of utilisation in health services and health facility