BACKGROUND
Jamaica has had a very strong record of vaccination success among children. The Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) was established in Jamaica in 1977, to achieve>95% coverage for all nationally recommended vaccines. Jamaica currently offers vaccination against 12 vaccine-preventable diseases primarily to children. The country is adopting the ‘life course’ approach to immunization, which addresses the need for immunization schedules and access to vaccines that respond to people’s health needs over time. This approach accounts for an individual’s stage in life, their lifestyle and the specific vulnerabilities to infectious disease that they may face at any point. While routine immunizations are highly promoted during childhood, several immunizations including boosters are recommended throughout one’s life.
The COVID-19 Pandemic and the global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines highlighted the importance of the promotion of and investment in life-course immunization. Promoting policies that support immunization across the life course, rather than restricting it to childhood, has the potential to:
- benefit individual and population health;
- promote healthy aging;
- support the long-term sustainability of health systems through reduced healthcare costs;
- lead to wider economic benefits by promoting workforce productivity;
- support equity and universal access to primary care by providing a platform around which these services can be provided;
- reduce the spread of antimicrobial resistance.
Immunization schedules are becoming more complex with the introduction of new, more expensive vaccines leading to higher programme budgets. This has created a need for increasingly precise, complete and systematic accountability. In order to overcome these challenges and to optimize the performance of the Expanded Program on Immunization, it is necessary to utilize tools that will help to increase coverage, improve the timeliness of vaccination, reduce revaccination and provide reliable data for decision-making.
EIR IMPLEMENTATION PROJECT
Electronic immunization registries (EIRs) are tools that facilitate the monitoring of individual immunization schedules and the storage of individual immunization histories. Jamaica will be implementing a context-fit EIR system designed to provide a consolidated patient record to healthcare workers at the point of care to enable the delivery of the appropriate vaccines at the appropriate time by providing clinical decision support, facilitating follow-up actions for missed appointments and tracking vaccine stock at the facility level.
The specific objective of the project includes but is not limited to:
- generating a landscape analysis to gain a better understanding of the enabling environment;
- creating a roadmap of the processes required to facilitate the introduction and sustainability of the EIR
- designing and deploying a standards-based, configurable, open-source EIR to:
- register and store routine immunization data of clients, and present this data to end-users and key stakeholders timely and in a manner that promotes evidence-based planning at all levels of the health system;
- facilitate longitudinal tracking of immunization records of the client across all levels of the health system;
- store and track vaccine stock information including at the health centre level;
- enable facility-level microplanning to identify missed populations;
- capture events supposedly attributable to vaccination or immunization (ESAVI) and adverse events following immunization (AEFI);
- Integrating the EIR with other systems such as HMIS, LMIS and other relevant systems;
- facilitating change management including capacity building of relevant stakeholders, including government partners, to operate, maintain and scale the EIR/IIS after the initial rollout.
PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION UNIT (PIU)
The Business Analyst will join the interdisciplinary team (Project Administrator, ICT Specialist, Change Management Consultant) headed by the EIR Manager that will lead on the significant change elements of the project.
The successful candidate will be contracted for two years in the first instance and report to the EIR Manager. The consultant will work collaboratively with Ministries, Departments and Agencies, other Units and Branches across the Ministry of Health and Wellness (MOHW), the Regional Health Authorities (RHA’s), health centres and hospitals as well as academia.
JOB SUMMARY
The consultant will identify the key business areas within the EPI programme that can be improved to increase efficiency and strengthen business processes. The successful candidate will provide the new Standard Operating Procedures for the EPI programme that will utilise the EIR.
SCOPE OF WORK
The scope of work to be performed by the Business Analyst will include:
- documenting, reviewing and analysing business processes to facilitate the identification of business systems requirements for the introduction of the EIR
- facilitating business process reviews to identify process inefficiencies or gaps
- developing the requirements package to include business use cases, stakeholder and business requirements, in order to capture functional and non-functional needs
- defining strategies to address issues in the environment that could impede successful project implementation
- creating documents to outline the proposed changes and the steps involved
- overseeing and providing hands-on support for the implementation of the EIR
- preparing detailed documentation in the form of reports and process diagrams
- participating in the review of product testing results to ensure conformance to requirements and standards
- assisting in the preparation of detailed implementation and product transition plans
- reviewing User Acceptance Test (UAT) Strategy, Test Plan and test cases to provide direction for effective execution
- managing project responsibilities including the development of project documentation, enforcement of project timelines and identification of project risks their benefits and impacts
- assisting with the development and conducting of training courses/workshops and training materials to support process management
- preparing and delivering presentations to business stakeholders and user groups
- preparing user manuals
- preparing and submitting reports on work progress as directed
- perform any other relevant duties as may be assigned by the EIR manager
DELIVERABLES
| DELIVERABLE | DESCRIPTION | COMPLETION TIME | % WEIGHT OF CONTRACT SUM |
| A PROJECT WORKPLAN | A detailed Inception Report including Workplan/Method Statement. The resources required to implement the activities and an appropriate risk management framework to support the management of the project. | 15 days | 5% |
| BUSINESS ANALYSIS PLAN | A roadmap to include a work breakdown structure and activity list with estimates for these activities. Outline financial risks, project plan/scope/milestones and important project dependencies. | 30 days | 10% |
| AS IS PROCESS FLOW | Detailed end-to-end description of the programme as it currently exists | 10 days | 5% |
| PROCESS REENGINEERING FLOW | Detailed end-to-end description of the features of the new programme | 30 days | 20% |
| BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS SPECIFICATION | Detail performance requirements and usability, the purpose of the product, the functions of the product, the features of the product and the users, the scope of the work and the humanity requirement | 15 days | 10% |
| FUNCTIONAL AND NON FUNCTIONAL SPECIFICATIONS | Detail what the EIR must do and the general characteristics of the system | 10 days | 5% |
| INDIVIDUAL VACCINE PROCESS FLOW FOR ALL STAKEHOLDERS | Develop user and procedure manuals | 30 days | 15% |
| USER ACCEPTANCE TESTING | Engage stakeholders and incorporate recommendations into the process flow | 40 days | 20% |
| FINAL REPORT AND PRESENTATION | The report must detail the achievement of the project and any lessons learnt during implementation. | 15 days | 10% |
MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
- A medical degree with specialty or advanced training in internal medicine, family medicine, public health or paediatrics or a Master’s in Business Administration.
- Three or more years’ experience in business process analysis/improvement, requirements engineering, user acceptance testing or quality assurance.
- Working knowledge of complex data and systems
- An understanding of how IT can be used to resolve problems
- Ability to undertake systems modelling and development
- Ability to apply business analysis methodologies, best practices and standards
- Skills in requirements documentation, tracing, auditing and validation
- Working knowledge of computer applications, such as spreadsheet, word processing and database applications.
- Good planning and organizational skills
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
- Excellent organizational and time management skills
- Excellent analytical skills with reporting and data analysis
- Excellent critical-thinking and problem-solving skills.
- Ability to establish and coordinate effective working relationships with various stakeholder
- An interest in, and understanding of, project management techniques
OPPORTUNITY SUMMARY
| SELECTION METHOD | Competitive |
| PERIOD OF
CONTRACT |
24 months |
| START DATE | July 2023 |
| PAYMENT METHOD | Deliverable based contract |
| FUNDING | Funding will be provided by the Government of Jamaica. |
| REPORTING ARRANGMENTS | The consultant shall report to the EIR Manager
|
| SUPPORT | The consultant will be provided with all tools of trade facilitation in undertaking the assignment. |
| INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY | All information obtained during the delivery of this Consultancy is the property of the Ministry of Health and Wellness and requests to use same must be made in writing to the Permanent Secretary |
| ESTIMATE | JA$12,100,000 |
EVALUATION CRITERIA:
| QUALIFICATIONS | RATING | SCORE |
| A Medical Degree with specialty or advanced training in internal medicine, family medicine, public health or paediatrics
or a Master’s in Business Administration |
MANDATORY
(15) |
|
| WORK EXPERIENCE | ||
| Three or more years’ experience in business process analysis/improvement, requirements engineering, user acceptance testing or quality assurance. | MANDATORY
(15) |
|
| SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE | ||
| Excellent analytical skills with reporting and data analysis | 10 | |
| Strong problem-solving/critical-thinking skills | 10 | |
| Ability to undertake systems modelling and development | 10 | |
| Skills in requirements documentation, tracing, auditing and validation | 10 | |
| Working knowledge of computer applications, such as spreadsheet, word processing and database applications | 10 | |
| Working knowledge of complex data and systems | 10 | |
| Excellent communication skills (verbal/written) | 5 | |
| Ability to use online information management systems | 5 | |
| 100 |