Baylor College of Medicine
Children’s Foundation - Uganda
Children’s Foundation - Uganda
In alignment with the Ministry of Health’s Digital Health Strategic Plan, which aims to institutionalize patient-level digital systems and transitioning to paperless operations by 2025, UgandaEMR+ has been developed and improved to support comprehensive healthcare management at the point of care (PoC). This initiative is part of the broader goal to increase Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in Uganda from 48% to 65%. UgandaEMR+ is an advanced electronic medical record (EMR) system designed to streamline patient management, clinical documentation, and reporting within healthcare facilities. Built on the foundation of OpenMRS, UgandaEMR+ offers a customizable platform tailored to the needs of healthcare providers in resource-constrained settings.
The system, which is currently rolled out at ART Clinics ensures that a patient’s medical information can be electronically shared from one service point to another while observing confidentiality. According to Moses Musinguzi, the Kyangwali HC IV ART Clinic In-Charge, the interconnection has enabled the sharing of information between the triage, laboratory, clinician, and pharmacy areas, thus aiding better patient management.
He shared this during the onsite visit where Patrick Kiiza (HIS Officer) and Emmanuel Tumwine (M&E Manager) of Baylor Foundation Uganda (ACE-Bunyoro mechanism) guided Beryls Kanali (OpenMRS Coordinator) and Musa Mwanje (METS Software Developer) to evaluate the impact the system has had at the facility since it was rolled out. The visit is part of the assessments done ahead of the team’s presentation in Nairobi on September 8th, 2024, at the Global OpenMRS conference.
“Before rolling out the system, we had some staff not showing up at work. The system has now improved staff attendance and cohesion because everyone ensures to be at their desk on clinic days to avoid system queues,” intimated Gillian the Client Linkage Referral Facilitator.
For long, the clinic grappled with long client queues which led to client complaints about the wastage of their time, jumping of queues, and delay of service to clients whose files were in other departments among others. With the system in place, and over 60 clients to be seen on a clinic day, a client takes a maximum of 20 minutes from triaging to receiving treatment and returning home thus saving time and reducing queues.
One of the clients shared her lack of fear about anyone jumping the queue because “They call us according to our numbers on the TV”-she said this pointing to the TV which displays and voices out ticket numbers in order of allocation. This is because the system prioritizes a first come first served basis. The system is designed for healthcare organizations and facilities that require an efficient and scalable solution for managing patient data thus helping health facility staff to deliver quality care and improve health outcomes. According to Beryls Kanali, the OpenMRS Coordinator, ongoing implementations are underway to expand its reach and impact in more regions.
The facility, however, faces a lot of power outages and for a system that largely depends on running power (electricity), this has proved challenging, especially in the middle of attending to clients. Musa Mwanje (METS Software Developer) suggested the conversion to using the solar system to address this issue.
Baylor Foundation Uganda supports facilities like Kyangwali HC IV through collaborations with partners such as METS as supported by the Ministry of Health with funding from The United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), through the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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