[Health] My updates on GNUHealth Implementation

[Yusif Suleiman]

Dear All, 

I write to report on the progress so far gone and then seek for a solution to our challenges on the implementation of gnuhealth.

Installation Overview

GNUHealth was installed on OpenSUSE Leap 15.3 on VirtualBox via Windows10 host machine for the purpose of managing Medical Microbiology test results.

Installation and configuration of institute was successful, system users were added, gnuhealth can now be access from the computers on the network using Windows Tryton client. 

Background of the Hospital

The Institute where gnuhealth was installed is decentralize settings, where different software applications are deployed for different purposes.

Hundreds of patients are visiting the hospital on daily basis. Patients basic information are collected in the records office at the general out patient department (GOPD), each patient is assigned with a unique hospital number (unit Number), this unit number is what records officer is using to retrieve patient folder in case of revisit, and the number goes along any request of the individual patient (ie. Lab test, xray and others), see attached lab form https://paste.opensuse.org/29814996.

Among the patients, similar names (both surname & othername) are commonly found, the patient unit number is used to differentiate those similar names.

Microbiology Lab

Because of the nature of the hospital (see attached flowchart https://paste.opensuse.org/82473828), only a paper lab request form is directed to the laboratory for investigation, see attached lab form https://paste.opensuse.org/29814996. 

A lab number will also be generated at the reception to assigned for an individual specimen going to the lab. Therefore, a laboratory staff has to initiate a lab request at that lab reception in the computer for any request directed to the lab. This will allow a staff in the Lab computer room (LIS) to retrieve that patient request and input his results on the software for printing.

Challenges 

>>On the request forms, patients’ date of birth cannot be attained because only age is on the request forms sent to the lab, and some request forms are sent with ‘Ad’, written as adult on the age field.

When Ad is written on the request form, we keyed in A on the DoB field, gnuhealth accept but nothing appears at age field on patients record.

>>When adding a new patient to the Patients module, lists of all patients with similar names are showing (see attached adding a patient name https://paste.opensuse.org/55877373). this may cause confusion on which name to select between names on the list.

>>The lab number generated at the reception do not have space in gnuhealth, and we try to use gnuhealth lab order number or Test ID, but both numbers do not display at a point of making the request, they only shown on Lab Test Requests module & Lab Tests Results module respectively.

In view of the workflow on this kind of environment (see attached workflow  https://paste.opensuse.org/82473828), those numbers cannot be use to retrieve a request for the results to be entered, since the numbers don’t show when making the request.

>>In a situation when two same names (i.e Rose Ene) requesting same lab request (ie. both swab mcs), see lab test request https://paste.opensuse.org/42612665. Those two names will not be differentiated at a point of entering the patients' results, especially when those similar names are many on the system.

I am sorry for this long text; I make it possible to summarized but still to be clear.

I want to use this opportunity to appreciate the support from all the community members, especially Dr Edgar for his diligent & attentive effort. 

I hope to find a solution to the above problems. 

Regards.

Yusuf