Nairobi, Kenya – BackpackEMR has had many firsts in the last few years, but our trip to Nairobi in June was one of our biggest.
We ran a pilot of BackpackEMR during a free 2-day clinic at the Lunga Lunga Health Center with our in-country partners, Life Link International, the Kenyan Red Cross, and sponsor Kenya Pipeline Company.
We were anticipating quite a few patients with our clinic running on the same day as ground-breaking for Lunga Lunga’s new Maternity Center, which included an appearance by the Nairobi Governor.
We were not disappointed. We saw 1000 patients during our 2-day clinic! This was an incredible test of our system with heavy volumes, the capability of quick entry, and the general stability of the system with such a high rate of data entry.
With only 1 hour of training before the clinic, the medical team was able to master the system with one clinician ending the camp saying “using BackpackEMR was actually faster than paper!“
The system was fast, with patient information displaying immediately at every other station. And, the medical team was open and excited to be using such a user-friendly EMR, despite some initial reservation with the concept of using an EMR during a free medical camp. It was a HUGE SUCCESS!
While it was difficult to celebrate during the clinic with our focus on the patients and the medical team using our system… we have to admit we were a bit giddy now looking back.
We might take a few moments to be excited about our performance in Kenya, but we’re already hard at work with all of the improvements we want to make based on our experience. No time to celebrate – we have work to do!
