The Partners In Health (PIH) program in Haiti, known locally as Zanmi Lasante (ZL), operates clinics and hospitals at 12 sites across the Central Plateau and the lower Artibonite, two of the country's poorest regions. Zanmi Lasante connects vulnerable people in Haiti to comprehensive primary care services and HIV prevention while working in support of the Ministry of Health’s goal of universal treatment coverage. Across all of our sites, PIH/ZL is prioritizing investing in systems that support high-quality, longitudinal care for our patients.
Most of our HIV clinics operate based on utilize a pre-OpenMRS HIV electronic medical records (EMR) system with retrospective data entry leading to data backlogs and lower quality data. Since 2009, OpenMRS implementations have been introduced for MDRTB, Primary Care, Physical Rehabilitation, and Mental Health at ZL health facilities. PIH/ZL expanded the stable, point-of-care OpenMRS EMR utilized at University Hospital at Mirebalais to our supported clinics at Thomonde Health Center in Thomonde, Haiti and Lacolline Health Center in Lascahobas, Haiti.
This timeline describes the various ZL EMR systems since 2001. All these systems are built with OpenMRS except the HIV EMR.
Goals of EMR
Identify and register all patients at a facility, regardless of program.
Enable clinicians to enter data directly at the point-of-care, leading to reduced data backlogs, higher quality data and improved access to data for patient care. This is accomplished through local server installations that eliminate previous barriers due to internet access.
In the future, leverage this base platform to support our clinical programs by providing timely, accurate, complete data on patients enrolled in HIV, TB, Nutrition, Maternal & Child Health, and other strategic clinical areas. Assist programs with referrals into care, eliminate loss to followup, and evaluate clinical outcomes. Understand the burden of disease along with expanding universal health coverage (UHC).
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The System
The ZL EMR systems will both enable clinicians and impact patients at all points of the care continuum, from recording diagnosis to mapping treatment plans and retaining patients in our care. Through implementing upgrades, our goals are to identify and register all primary care patients, enable clinicians to enter patient data at the point-of-care, and eventually leverage these systems to provide comprehensive and complete data on all patients. This point-of-care system is used by clinicians and data archivists: Clinicians capture medical information; Archivists capture patient registration and workflow. The ZL EMR primary care functionality includes patient registration, check-in, vital signs, and primary care visit information, including history, vaccinations, allergies, physical exam, diagnoses, and treatment plan.
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