Alaminos City's Barangay Health Worker Information System (BHWIS)


By LCP Secretariat
March 3, 2021 - Alaminos City


As Philippine cities are beginning to be threatened by COVID-19, the City of Alaminos was quick to act in ensuring that the city government is prepared in its response. From realigning funds to be allocated for the procurement of relief packs for the prioritized sectors, it was also able to monitor its population and the probable transmission of the virus particularly coming from returning residents and locally stranded individuals (LSIs). Decisions made for these measures were supported by the Barangay Health Worker Information System (BHWIS), a computer application developed by the city government which not only captures health and nutrition data, but as well as sex-disaggregated data and profile of the population, and spatial data using GIS.

 

Conceived in 2004, the BHWIS was implemented only in 2015. The city government, through its City Planning and Development Office (CPDO) and City Health Office (CHO), initially developed the indicators for the system. From health and nutrition data, it continued to expand as new indicators are being added every year upon careful review of the system and data needs of the city government. The BHWs collect household level data using manual (pen and paper) and digital (tablet) methods. All of its 39 barangays with a population of 89,708 individuals (PSA, 2015) are covered by the BHWIS. 

 

The BHWIS is funded by the local government through its gender and development (GAD) fund. With this innovative utilization of resources, the BHWIS also became the depository of local sex-disaggregated data and served as the city's GAD database system.

 

Apart from the CPDO and CHO, the versatility of the BHWIS became useful to other offices in the city hall such as the City Veterinary Office (CVO). They were able to locate the piggeries within the city during the African Swine Fever (ASF) outbreak. The City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO) used the master list registered in the BHWIS in monitoring the number of families to be provided with relief packs and the increase in the number of households from 25,000 to 32,000 during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also aided the city's IEC campaign on the barangays with confirmed COVID-19 cases. The Department of Education and the 39 barangay councils also benefit from the BHWIS data for their programs.

 

 

It was also during the pandemic that the vital role of the BHWs in Alaminos City was underscored. Apart from their mandated role of bridging primary health care to and implementing nutrition programs in the communities, they remain the frontliners for data gathering. 

 

In 2019, Alaminos City ranked second in the Digital Governance Awards for the Best in eGov Data-Driven Governance (D2G) Award for its BHWIS. This award is given to local governments with outstanding governance through responsible use and management of data. The BHWIS, originally developed to collect health and nutrition data of the population, proved to have bigger impacts to the local government and community.

 

With the fresh ideas brought by City Mayor Arth Celeste, Alaminos City is looking forward to equipping all barangays to maintain their own databases, connect them online, and develop more informative visuals for their constituents.

 

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