Electronic medical records and HMIS project

There are mission hospitals, private hospitals and non governmental organizations who work hand in hand with government. The District Health office is the main health service provider. This office provides guidance to Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) on which communities need support or services. To do this, the district health office depends on reports from communities as well as health centers. This project will provide the district health office with current and accurate information.

Currently medical records are kept by patients (for outpatients) and the records department (for inpatients). Most patients lose their records. It is also difficulty for the hospital to keep all medical records forever. This results in loss of medical records and as a result patients' care is not necessarily based on their health profile.

Current status

The district health management team has been briefed on the project. The project team has visted Nkhoma mission hospital where a similar project has been implemented.

Target group:
Rumphi District hospital and Bolero rural hospital are the target facilities. Since Rumphi district hospital is the only referral hospital in the district, almost every body in Rumphi will benefit from this project. Women and children contribute more than 70% of all patients and clients in our hospitals. More than 80% of all guardians are women. Thus, the project will greatly benefit this subset of the population.

Percentage of drugs and medical supplies monitored digitally increases from 0% in 2010 to 100% in 2013.

Specific objectives:
1. To have electronic medical records so that they can be easily retrieved during subsequent visits.
2. To have timely reports at all levels of the district health system.
3. To reduce loss and misplacement of reports that occurs during transfer of documents between health facilities.
4. To have standardized data collection and reporting tools.
5. To improve communication between Bolero rural hospital and Rumphi District Health office.

Goals

• Buy 31 work station units (thin client units)
• Buy two servers and set up local area net work
• Buy wireless link equipment
• Conduct 11 training sensions for end users
• Conduct quarterly project progress review meetings

The activities of the project will be incorporated into on job training programs for the hospital.

The District Health Management Team (DHMT) sees this project as a milestone in as far as patient care, data management, communication, and service planning is concerned. The DHMT will start incorporating activities of the project into its yearly plans starting from next government financial year (July 2012 to June 2013).