Mulago Specialised Women and Neonatal Hospital
Maternal and Neonatal Care | Uganda
Laboratory digitisation at Uganda's specialised maternal and neonatal hospital, with analysers reporting into the record without transcription.
The challenge
Mulago Specialised Women and Neonatal Hospital runs maternal, obstetric and neonatal care at the top of Uganda's referral chain. Its analysers were producing perfectly good numbers and handing them to a person with a pen, which is where transposed digits and results filed against the wrong patient come from, in a setting where the patient may be hours old.
What MedX did
MedX connected the hospital's analysers through MedX Automation so their results write straight into the shared record, and put the laboratory workflow, quality control and sign-off on the LIMS above them.
Background
MSWNH is Uganda's specialised hospital for women and newborns, covering high-risk antenatal care, obstetrics, gynaecology and neonatal intensive care. Its laboratory was digitised with the National Health Laboratory and Diagnostic Services alongside the other national referral hospitals.
Four analysers, no transcription
Four of the hospital's analysers report into the system without transcription. Each one was matched to its standard definition once, and from then on its readings arrive in the right shape on their own, tagged to the right patient and the right order.
The same mechanism extends to everything else in the building that produces a number. Fetal and CTG monitors, incubators and radiant warmers, phototherapy units and neonatal CPAP, syringe and infusion pumps, obstetric ultrasound and the power that keeps them running can all be read the same way, which is the path from a connected laboratory to a connected hospital.
What we connected
- Laboratory workflow end to end, reception through to released result.
- Analysers connected through MedX Automation, writing to the shared record.
- Bidirectional exchange with EAFYA EMR for orders and results.
- ISO 15189 quality framework and automated HMIS and DHIS2 reporting.
Results
- 4 analysers reporting into the record with no manual re-entry.
- Transcription removed from the path between bench and chart.
- One record per patient, shared with the clinical teams treating her.
Impact
In maternal and neonatal care the window between a result existing and a result being acted on is short. Removing the retyping step removes both the delay and the most common source of error in it, on the ward where that error is least survivable.
Part of the national referral programme
This deployment is one of four. In partnership with the National Health Laboratory and Diagnostic Services, MedX digitised the laboratories of Uganda's national referral hospitals from 2024, each on the same platform and the same standards, so a result means the same thing whichever of them produced it.
- Kiruddu, general medicine and surgery.
- Kawempe, women and children.
- Mulago Specialised Women and Neonatal, maternal and neonatal care.
- Butabika, mental health.
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