Jenny Bituin

[Jenny Bituin]

Hello everyone. I am Jenny Bituin from the Philippines. You can call me Jenny or Jen. My background is in Nutrition and Dietetics, and a little bit of background in Computer Science. Since 2018, I have been working as a nutrition officer here in my hometown in the Philippines. As a nutrition officer, I handle nutrition programs, provide nutrition and other related services, and supervise our volunteer nutrition workers. In the BHI online program, I expect to learn more about the health information system and data management in healthcare.

I look forward to learning with you all!

[Jenny Bituin]

I currently work as a Nutrition Officer at the local (municipal) health office, also called the Rural Health Unit here in my hometown in the Philippines. Here are the problems in our office’s health information system that I observed and as interviewed from people using/managing our system.

HARDWARE
There is a lack of computers and printers solely dedicated to the health information system (particularly those for our Electronic Medical Record software). Because of this, some staff uses their own personal phone to access medical records and they have to share with the printer used by our office’s administrative staff. Fortunately, our supervisor (health officer) had place orders for new computers and printers.

SOFTWARE
At the present, our local health office uses Wireless Access for Health (WAH) as our EMR provider. We started using them as a provider just this year (2025), and as of today we had not yet experienced any major problems using the system. Before using WAH, we are using the eKonsulta (Electronic Konsulta) system of PhilHealth, our country’s National Health Insurance Program (NHIP). Although WAH is easier to use than eKonsulta, it is expensive, compared to eKonsulta which is free. Fortunately, we receive revenues from PhilHealth reimbursements, which can be used to pay for the cost of using the software.

DATA
I think this is one of the biggest problems in our health information system, along with process. Our health data needs more organization and since we are using a new EMR software this year, health data from previous years are not yet in the current system. This may be solved by hiring and training additional staff to help in the backlog of data.

PROCESS
Our office has yet to establish a detailed process in the usage and management of our EMR software. New users sometimes get confused on what to do next, since there are no detailed guidelines/instructions. A written guideline on the usage of our EMR software will be very helpful for a better process.

PEOPLE
Our office has hired more people last month in order to help in the management of our health information system. They have background on information systems and information technology, but most of them still have to undergo training on health information system. In addition, most of the people involved in managing our EMR software are job order personnel, meaning they are not permanent employees. Creating permanent positions for people working with our health information system and filling these positions with qualified personnel is very important for our continuous and high quality provision of health services.

[Jenny Bituin]

Thank you for your input. As someone working in a smaller setting, it is nice to know about the some of the problems encountered in health information system on a larger scale and your suggestions on how to improve them.

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