Study of feasibility and effectiveness of ASHA-Soft (Online Payment and Performance Monitoring System) in Rajasthan.

OBJECTIVE

ASHA-Soft is the pioneer e-Health program which was launched to manage online payment and for monitoring performance of ASHA workers in Rajasthan. There is a paucity of studies which documents the feasibility and effectiveness of this program with aim to assess the feasibility and effectiveness of ASHA-Soft program.

METHODS

Study was conducted in Jodhpur using quantitative and qualitative method. Primary and secondary data approach was used to assess feasibility and effectiveness of ASHA-Soft. Purposive sampling was done to recruit 150 ASHA workers having experience of more than 5 years to capture the perception before and after implementation of ASHA-Soft. Qualitative data was also obtained from ASHA workers and key stakeholders. To assess the effectiveness secondary data was obtained from various sources was analyzed.

RESULTS

Mean age of participants were 35.51 6.7 years. Most of ASHAs agreed that ASHA-Soft mediated timely payment (68%) and payment according to their performance (81%). It also increased their motivational level (96%).There were no significant difference in different work experience of ASHAs and perception towards ASHA-Soft regarding timely payment (p=0.99), improving quality of life (p=0.66) and motivation level (p=0.40). This program has provided standard online procedure of online payment and monitoring for ASHAs. Incentives received by ASHAs increased to 77%, performance increased by 7% and 9% for maternal health and child health respectively within one year of its initial implementation.

CONCLUSIONS

Study finding demonstrate that ASHA-Soft program is acceptable to the users and is effective in terms of meeting organizational requirement.