Possible identified Bahmni, an OpenMRS (Medical Record System) as the solution of choice. Designed by ThoughtWorks specifically for healthcare providers in low-resource settings, prior to Nepal, Bahmni was implemented in three locations across India. They are Jan Swasthya Sahyog in Bilaspur, Society for Education, Action and Research in Community Health (SEARCH) in Gadchiroli and Lok Biradari Prakalp in Gadchiroli.
During the six months of ThoughtWorks working with Possible, product features like inpatient functionalities, data presentation, clinician’s templates were further enhanced with reviews every two to three weeks.
The enthusiastic 60 odd doctors, clinical and administrative staff at Bayalpata Hospital were well versed with computers and popular social platforms. And that shortened the robust five week training and support plan designed by ThoughtWorks by a few weeks. This stood testament to how user friendly the system was developed to be.
The Registration, Lab and Clinical (consultation notes, vitals, diagnosis, disposition, templates/forms) and Reports modules were rolled out over a period of four weeks. And departments that were successfully trained and currently use the product are Registration, Lab, Emergency Room, General OPD (outpatient Department), Chronic OPD, Departments / Special consultation rooms, Operating Theatre, Dressing and Minor Surgery and IPD (inpatient Department).
Bahmni positively influenced not only the day to day operations of the hospital, but also facilitated the hospital’s successful grant applications. The integrated and intuitively designed product pulls together information that is leveraged by the hospital’s grant writers while applying for funding.
“It’s an interesting shift. It’s not just putting data down — it’s learning how to utilize that data, how to synthesize it, how to look for the right things to make smarter clinical decisions.”
- Alex Harsha, Researcher at Possible