BCH becomes first private hospital in Uganda to implement new Health Management Information Systems
Bwindi Community Hospital (BCH) has successfully launched a new patient management system (EAFYA) along with a new advanced electronic medical records system (Uganda EMR+), a major leap towards modernizing healthcare delivery in southwestern Uganda.
Public sector partners leading the implementation at BCH included The Ministry of Health, Uganda (MOH) together with the Uganda Protestant Medical Bureau (UPMB). Of all private facilities in Uganda, BCH, a rural, private, not-for-profit facility, was the first to be given the EAFYA system, thanks to UPMB.
According to the Ministry of Health (MOH) team, of all the facilities requiring a new system, BCH was the readiest to receive the system in terms of digitalization. BCH has been supported by a team from MOH and Makerere School of Public Health, Monitoring and Evaluation Technical Support (METS).
BCH Executive Director, Dr. Charlotte Aguti Ongom, expressed her appreciation by saying, “I thank the BCH staff and the combined teams for working effortlessly. This will greatly help in the monitoring of health workers and stock management which has been one of the challenges. Our patient waiting time is going to be reduced. Auditing will improve. And since BCH is the first private, not-for-profit facility to be using the system, we will be very blessed as a facility as efficiency improves.”
Two systems were introduced to the facility. EAFYA, for general hospital and patient management, and Uganda EMR+ for TB/HIV, and patient management. Uganda EMR+ helps BCH to interact with patients from point to point. Health workers are able to enter real-time data with the client present. Both systems are able to support reporting.
The new patient management system will improve the hospital’s operations by enabling efficient record keeping, enhanced patient management, data security, reporting, and analytics, as well as integration with national health systems. BCH is aligning itself to the national strategy of healthcare digitalization. At the end of the day, the system will enable healthcare workers analyse patient data quicker and with greater accuracy, making quicker interventions to influence decision making. Overall, it will improve health service delivery and management at BCH.
Dr. Phiona Musiime from MOH congratulated BCH in taking the necessary steps to digitalize and thanked the MOH team for its technical support. “This is a right step in the right direction. We look forward to streamlining all the areas digitalization is going to support. This will reduce paper work and enhance further digitalization. We have come to appreciate the work being done in Bwindi being directed by the management of BCH. We all want to see an improvement in the patient outcomes.”
The District Health Officer, Dr. Birungi Mutahunga, noted that the new system will improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the hospital, as well as reduce prescription and medical errors.
Dr. Scott Kellermann, who helped found BCH, reminded the teams of the importance of retaining patients’ medical records. He noted that in previous years, patients would retain their own medical records but often would not bring them back to the hospital on subsequent visits. “Every time you would see a patient, it would be like a first encounter. Now, patient care will be improved drastically because the data will be there. Data analysis and research will be highly improved, not to mention how it will alert us to the real possibility of outbreaks,” he said.
