A framework for the acceptance process of District Health Information System for vertical health programmes

In many parts of the world, several attempts have been made to make vertical health programmes (VHPs) use District Health Information System (DHIS); however, there is no specific framework to guide the process up to date. The objective of the study was to design a framework for the acceptance process of DHIS for VHPs. The study was qualitative in nature. The framework presented puts forward three phases in which DHIS acceptance goes through i.e. attitude, adoption and acceptance. It discusses the main focus in each phase: individual and organisation for the attitude phase, organisation in the adoption phase, and the individual for the acceptance phase. It goes ahead to describe the important considerations in each phase and facilitating conditions for the whole process which are clear management goals, collaboration among stakeholders, availability of resources and funds, clear guidelines and monitoring and evaluation of each phase of the process.