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Electronic Medical Records and Same Day Patient Tracing Improves Clinic Efficiency and Adherence to Appointments in a Community Based HIV/AIDS Care Program, in Uganda

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Abstract

Patients who miss clinic appointments make unscheduled visits which compromise the ability to plan for and deliver quality care. We implemented Electronic Medical Records (EMR) and same day patient tracing to minimize missed appointments in a community-based HIV clinic in Kampala. Missed, early, on-schedule appointments and waiting times were evaluated before (pre-EMR) and 6 months after implementation of EMR and patient tracing (post-EMR). Reasons for missed appointments were documented pre and post-EMR. The mean daily number of missed appointments significantly reduced from 21 pre-EMR to 8 post-EMR. The main reason for missed appointments was forgetting (37%) but reduced significantly by 30% post-EMR. Loss to follow-up (LTFU) also significantly decreased from 10.9 to 4.8% The total median waiting time to see providers significantly decreased from 291 to 94 min. Our findings suggest that EMR and same day patient tracing can significantly reduce missed appointments, and LTFU and improve clinic efficiency.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (1 R24 HD056651-01).

Conflict of interest

No competing financial interests exist.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Medical Department, Reach Out Mbuya HIV/AIDS Initiative, P.O. Box 7303, Kampala, Uganda

    Stella T. Alamo

  2. Health Unit, RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA, USA

    Glenn J. Wagner

  3. Monitoring and Evaluation Department, Reach Out Mbuya Parish HIV/AIDS Initiative, Kampala, Uganda

    Pamela Sunday

  4. SPH/CDC Fellowship Programme, Makerere University School of Public Health, Kampala, Uganda

    Rhoda K. Wanyenze

  5. Department of Strategic Planning, Management Sciences for Health, Kampala, Uganda

    Joseph Ouma

  6. Department of Medicine, Makerere University School of Medicine, Kampala, Uganda

    Moses Kamya

  7. Department of Clinical Sciences, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium

    Robert Colebunders

  8. Epidemiology and Social Medicine, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

    Robert Colebunders

  9. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Makerere University School of Public Health, Kampala, Uganda

    Fred Wabwire-Mangen

Authors
  1. Stella T. Alamo
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  2. Glenn J. Wagner
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  3. Pamela Sunday
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  4. Rhoda K. Wanyenze
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  5. Joseph Ouma
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  6. Moses Kamya
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  7. Robert Colebunders
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  8. Fred Wabwire-Mangen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stella T. Alamo.

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Alamo, S.T., Wagner, G.J., Sunday, P. et al. Electronic Medical Records and Same Day Patient Tracing Improves Clinic Efficiency and Adherence to Appointments in a Community Based HIV/AIDS Care Program, in Uganda. AIDS Behav 16, 368–374 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-011-9996-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-011-9996-9

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