DHO-ICT

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OBJECTIVES

  • Enhance Primary Healthcare Services – Ensure equitable access to quality healthcare, strengthen maternal and child health services, and improve the availability of essential medicines and trained healthcare professionals.
  • Strengthen Disease Surveillance & Control – Implement real-time disease tracking, ensure universal immunization coverage, and enhance preparedness for epidemics like COVID-19, TB, HIV/AIDS, and vector-borne diseases.
  • Improve Health Information & Data Management – Digitize healthcare services, enhance disease surveillance systems, and maintain a centralized database for evidence-based decision-making.
  • Promote Family Planning & Public Health Awareness – Increase contraceptive prevalence, integrate family welfare centers with primary healthcare, and conduct mass awareness campaigns on preventive healthcare and hygiene.
  • Enhance Emergency Preparedness & Quality Assurance – Strengthen emergency response systems, manage rapid response teams, ensure stockpiles of medical supplies, and conduct regular monitoring and evaluations.
  • Expand Healthcare Access & Capacity Building – Improve healthcare in rural and underserved areas, expand mobile health services, promote telemedicine, and provide continuous training for healthcare professionals.

FUNCTIONS

The District Health Office (DHO) is responsible for managing and ensuring the provision of quality primary, secondary, and tertiary healthcare services across the district. It plays a key role in strengthening maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) programs and improving access to essential medicines, diagnostic services, and healthcare professionals. The DHO is actively involved in disease surveillance and control, monitoring and responding to both communicable and non-communicable diseases. It implements real-time disease tracking and outbreak response mechanisms, ensuring universal immunization coverage under the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) to protect against preventable diseases. A crucial function of the DHO is health information and data management, which involves digitizing healthcare services through HMIS, DHIS, and NIMS, maintaining electronic surveillance systems for disease reporting, and utilizing health data for policy-making and planning.

The DHO also promotes family planning and reproductive health services by integrating family welfare centers with primary healthcare facilities, increasing contraceptive prevalence, and ensuring free access to contraceptives, counseling, and reproductive health services.

To enhance public awareness, the DHO conducts health education and community engagement programs by organizing school health initiatives, awareness campaigns on hygiene (WASH) and nutrition, and celebrating international health days such as World Immunization Week, World TB Day, and Dengue Awareness Day. The office is also responsible for emergency preparedness and response, developing health emergency plans for epidemics and natural disasters, establishing Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) and Health Emergency Operations Centers (HEOCs), and maintaining stockpiles of essential medical supplies. To ensure high standards in healthcare delivery, the DHO conducts monitoring, evaluation, and quality assurance activities. It performs field inspections, performance reviews of healthcare facilities, and compliance checks with national and international health standards while collaborating with organizations such as WHO, UNICEF, and Gavi. The capacity-building and training of healthcare professionals is another vital function, ensuring that health workers, vaccinators, and managers receive continuous medical education and specialized training on disease surveillance, data management, and immunization programs. The DHO plays a crucial role in policy implementation and interdepartmental coordination, aligning district health policies with national strategies and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), while fostering partnerships with government agencies, NGOs, and international organizations to improve healthcare services. Lastly, improving healthcare access in rural and underserved areas is a key priority. The DHO expands mobile health services, ensures equitable distribution of healthcare resources, and promotes telemedicine and digital health solutions to bridge accessibility gaps in remote regions. Through these functions, the District Health Office (DHO) ensures efficient healthcare management, disease prevention, emergency preparedness, and improved public health outcomes across the district.

ACHIEVEMENTS

  • Integrated 13 Family Welfare Centers with Primary Healthcare Facilities to enhance maternal and reproductive health services.
  • Digitalized healthcare with HMIS, DHIS, EDMIS, OS Elephant, NIMS, LMIS, LHW MIS, CCI, and Online Drug Licensing.
  • Launched “One Patient, One ID” to streamline patient records across healthcare facilities.
  • Conducted two Big Catch-Up rounds, immunizing 13,000+ children under five against vaccine-preventable diseases.
  • Reached over 6,000 defaulters through IOA rounds to ensure vaccination completion.
  • Strengthened Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) with new NEIR devices and refresher training for vaccinators.
  • Established a sentinel site at PIMS for typhoid surveillance and hosted WHO and Gavi monitoring visits.
  • Organized Family Health Days twice a month to promote reproductive health and increase the CPR to 60%.
  • Partnered with Greenstar and TCI to expand family planning services, contraceptive access, and counseling.
  • Signed an LoU with Greenstar’s POOCHO Helpline to provide telehealth support for maternal and reproductive health.
  • Conducted mass awareness campaigns on dengue, malaria, family planning, WASH, and immunization.
  • Established Community Health Committees and launched School Health Awareness Programs.
  • Celebrated international health days, including World Immunization Week, World TB Day, and Contraceptive Day.
  • Implemented smart lockdowns in high-risk areas to control the spread of COVID-19.
  • Launched extensive COVID-19 vaccination and testing services, ensuring high coverage.
  • Established and trained Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) for immediate disease outbreak response.
  • Ensured availability of emergency medical supplies and essential medicines in healthcare facilities.
  • Conducted TOT sessions and workshops for mid-level managers and EPI training programs.
  • Strengthened EPI coordination through weekly and quarterly review meetings.
  • Played a key role in merging health and population services with NHSRC.
  • Strengthened partnerships with WHO, UNICEF, Jhpiego, Gavi, RIZ, and other organizations.
  • Led monitoring and evaluation of health programs to ensure alignment with national policies and SDGs.
  • Increased Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by 10%, improving access to essential healthcare services for the population.
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