GP eRegister?
General Patient eRegister is a part of Union Facility eRegister. It is an electronic version of the existing paper-based General Patient Register used at union level facilities such as Health and Family Welfare Center (UHFWC) under the DGFP and Union Sub Center (USC) or Rural Dispensaries (RD) under the DGHS by the Sub Assistant Community Medical Officers (SACMO) for recording services provided to general patients. It is a mobile application (mHealth) that works both offline and online.
How does General Patient eRegister work?
Once any person is registered, the SACMO and FWV can retrieve particulars of that person as a service seeker or client from the hand-held device (Tablet PC) or from Population Registration System (PRS) database using unique ID which is provided during registration or performing a search using different parameters. Service histories of the clients. The service records are shared among the different service providers from different location and able to report to established national system (DHIS2, DGFP MIS, etc.). As most of the common problems, symptoms, treatment/suggestions and medicine lists are recorded in the General Patient eRegister, it is easy for the providers to provide the General Patient services only by selecting the particular details which ensure the uniformity and quality of the medical record. The recording of health information against the unique identification number ensures tracking of client across multiple providers.
Key Components of General Patient eRegister:
General Patient service:
SACMOs (DGHS and DGFP) and FWVs provide General Patient services for adult and adolescent by registering instantly (NRC) or previously registered through PRS in the facility which is known Union Health and Family Welfare Centers (UH&FWCs). FWVs also provided the service in Satellite Clinic. This system are able to alert the providers automatically in case of any complicated mother for referral.
Integration with LMIS, DHIS2 and MCI (SHR):
SACMO and FWV as Service Delivery Point (SDP), receive essential medicines from upazila store for distribution to the clients. GP eRegister is connected with MOHFW Supply Chain Management Portal (SCMP) – a separate DGFP database, and updates stock-distribution data end of the month through adjustment of closing balance with opening balance. This eRegister has the provision to integrate with DHIS2. For allocating unique identification for each client, MCI (SHR) Application programming Interface (API) is used.
Tracking of service delivery point
This eRegister allows to identify the location where the service has been provided by service provider. E.g. whether the provided service from facility or satellite clinic.
Job aid with medical intelligence
Development of Job aid tools is novel in nature and made possible due to use of digital technologies. FWVs and SACMOs can access General Patient service based list. This eRegisters built in medical intelligence allows the provider to identify/highlight the high risk factors such as high blood pressure is instantly highlighted. Also this system has the provision to notify the provider if the client needed to be referred to a higher level facility.
Automatic monthly report
The FWVs and SACMOs prepare MIS-3 report at the end of each month. MIS-3 form is now generated automatically at any point of time. E.g. service providers are now be able to check their MIS-3 form even after providing each service. It significantly reduces the work load of the FWVs, and SACMOs who used to spend 1-2 days each month compiling the report by extracting relevant data from service register. SACMO (Health) reports are also available in DHIS2 format.
Data sharing and use
The data can be shared horizontally and vertically within and between the directorates (DGHS and DGFP)- i.e. Sub Assistant Community Medical Officer (SACMO), Family Welfare Visitor (FWV). Thus, it eliminates the likelihood of duplication or double reporting from same facility and community level as denominator is same and enforced through central database. Data collection is easy, timely and effortless. This would be pivotal in ensuring the quality of data.