This meeting continued the conversation from previous meetings that have dug deeper into the working model which was first introduced in the March 2021 community meeting. The June meeting focus was on missed appointment reminders and we were joined by team members from CIDRZ - Zambia, AMPATH - Kenya, and the Rwanda Biomedical Center to speak about their approaches for this touchpoint interaction.
These three presentations shared on the following:
- Santiana Munezero from the Rwanda Biomedical Center shared their appointment management strategy. This team utilizes an EMR system structure through OpenMRS to maintain patient information from registration through follow-ups and retention practices. The appointment management for HIV patients includes a model for scheduling and the process following a missed appointment: 1) Identification, 2) contact tracing, and 3) updating records. A few challenges were also noted; the appointment module is not ideal in meeting requirements for HIV appointments, only paper tools are used by providers for A.R.T. pickup, and local servers at facilities have not been easy to use.
- Evelyn Too from AMPATH - Kenya shared they have found that clients miss appointments due to forgetting the appointment, self-transferring, transit-related challenges, and a busy work schedule. There are also times where a patient is deceased and it is not noted in their management system. A team of experts planned how they could automate their processes including developing reports, automating the defaulter tracing registers that were formerly paper-based, and training retention staff on accessing AMRS and generating missed appointments daily. Evelyn also shared the missed appointment management process.
- Jacob Mutale and Komba Sikombe from CIDRZ - Zambia presented on a project called "Leveraging Person-Centered Public Health for HIV Treatment in Zambia (PCPH)". In facility interviews, the team found that those who had missed appointments were related often related to clinic-based barriers and structural barriers. Through other survey data, there were other reasons for missed appointments they dug deeper into like patient's experience with staff.
Following these presentations was a Q&A to dive deeper into programs shared by the speakers. We have posted the slides and recording of this meeting to this wiki page for more details on the presentations and the full meeting.
Don't forget to attend our upcoming DUC Debrief on June 15 from 9 to 10 a.m. (EDT). This debrief will be an informal, open forum to continue the conversation from this month's community meeting. An invite will be sent your way to join in on the discussion!