Kenyan hospitals moving from the Social Health Authority (SHA) Provider Portal to the Health Management Information System (HMIS) must complete a series of digital requirements before they can fully shift to the new arrangement.
The transition is part of the government’s plan to have hospitals use their HMIS to connect healthcare delivery with SHA services, replacing the previous arrangement in which facilities used their own hospital systems alongside the SHA Provider Portal.
According to the Ministry of Health, the transition deadline has been extended to October 30 and covers public Level 5 and Level 6 facilities, faith-based organizations, and private hospitals.
“An additional one-month extension has been granted to allow facilities to comply with the transition directives fully,” Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale stated on October 1.
Additionally, Duale clarified that during the transition, no patient would be denied access to healthcare services.
SHA Portal to HMIS Transition
The Ministry of Health emphasized that the SHA HMIS is designed to work with compliant Hospital Management Information Systems, allowing information generated during healthcare delivery to be exchanged with the national digital-health infrastructure.
For hospitals to transition to the directed portal by the Ministry, the process must begin with the facility establishing the HMIS it will use
During the selection, the facility should determine whether the system could meet the DHA’s certification and integration requirements.
Completing DHA Certification
The Digital Health Agency operates the official certification process for digital-health systems.
Through the DHA, facilities can self-attest, where the system provider provides information about the organization, the system’s classification, clinical functions, reporting capabilities, security arrangements, and ability to exchange information.
Applicants then submit the required fee and supporting evidence, and DHA reviews the documents before the system moves to the preparing a testing environment.
The system undergoes laboratory testing, after which DHA makes the certification decision. Where the requirements are met, a certificate is issued, and the system is placed on the public certification register.
Requirements include registration with the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner, a completed Data Protection Impact Assessment, and encryption of data at rest and in transit.
Connecting HMIS to AfyaConnect
Once the HMIS certification process is completed, the system moves to the technical integration stage through AfyaConnect, the Digital Health Agency (DHA) platform used to connect digital health systems to government health services.
According to the DHA, the process begins with registration on AfyaConnect and completion of a system integration checklist.
The system provider undergoes technical onboarding, where sandbox credentials are issued for testing, with stages including verification of data flows between the HMIS and the connected APIs before the system proceeds to the next stage of integration.
AfyaConnect currently lists more than 40 health APIs on its platform.
After the technical connection is tested, AfyaConnect provides validation of the hospital’s clinical and administrative workflows.
Go-Live Approval
The final stage is submission of the integrated system for review and go-live approval.
AfyaConnect states that it issues production credentials after approval, allowing the system to move from the sandbox environment to live operation.
How Far the SHA Portal Transition Has Reached
The SHA portal to HMIS transition has already been completed across the public Level 2 to Level 4 facilities.
According to Duale, 6,427 public Level 2 to Level 4 facilities had completed the transition by October 1.
At Level 5, four facilities had completed the transition while 23 were at different stages.
The government expects the remaining public Level 5 facilities to complete the process by October 30.
For faith-based facilities, the government said it was supporting 518 contracted facilities with HMIS installation and transition, as thirty-eight had completed the process by October 1.
Where Facilities Can Get Help
Facilities facing technical problems during the SHA portal-to-HMIS transition can seek assistance through the Ministry of Health Helpdesk on +254-20-2717077.
Through the helpdesk, providers can submit support tickets, request system access, report equipment or synchronization issues, and track technician responses
For issues involving HMIS integration with government APIs, the Digital Health Agency (DHA) provides support through AfyaConnect and its technical helpdesk at helpdesk@dha.go.ke.
The DHA also provides 24-hour emergency support on 147 for critical health-system issues, while its general support services operate Monday to Friday, 8 am to 5 pm
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