Centro Medico San Benito Jose (SBJ), Comayagua, Honduras
Enhanced Patient Care with Computer Base Registry

Dr. Wilmer Perez, SBJ Medical Director Marcela Alfaro-Stengel,
SBJ Administrator Fr. Herald Joseph Brock, CFR,
Convento San Serafin Liaison Drs. John Kelly & Tom Adamkiewcz, MOQ Atlanta Medical Mission Team

Background The project is to enhance existing capabilities to help with patient care, follow up and need assessment. St. Benedict Joseph Medical Center is a joint project between the Community of the Franciscans of the Renewal and Light of the World Mission Charities. Three to four surgical missions occur every year for general surgery, plastics, and urology. An Atlanta, Georgia based exploratory specialty mission went in August 2005 to perform minimally invasive orthopedic surgery, (Dr. John Kelly). There is a need for this service since many patients suffer joint incapacitation from physical labor. Operations are performed in a state of the art facility that serves the under-served from Comayagua and surrounding regions.

Between missions, the facility functions as a clinic where approximately 1000 patients are seen each month. Two thirds of patients are women and two thirds are less than 35 years of age. The Atlanta mission has proposed to help fund a Registered Nurse position to start a program of basic education and care for expectant mothers. This registry will also assist with this service.

2006-2007 Accomplishments

ITHC Award

Following a visit by Ms. Ana Vallardes Galvez to SBJ, Ms. Marcela Alfaro-Stengal received a deserved award for her pioneering work in establishing a hospital activity database. Medical personnel at SBJ provide care of the poor in the Comayagua region. Ms. Alfaro's simple but effective system tracks medical encounters and facilities resource utilization and care delivery planning. Funds from ITHC were also used to train Lorena Ventura in data entry.

Expansion of Data Measurement Capabilities

The ITHC funds had multiplicative effect! The aw The Institute for Technology in Health Care (ITHC) is interested in encouraging the use of technology in various fields in ways that can benefit health. ITHC is interested in stimulating users, researchers, and students to present papers to groups of their peers, or write articles that demonstrate how they have used technology from any field to benefit the practices of medicine to improve health in any community. It is also interested in stimulating innovative projects that use technology from any field to benefit health.
A number of areas use technologies that can easily be refocused to improve health, the most valuable possession any human has. The goal of the ITHC's efforts is intended to stimulate others to realize that technology from any field can be transferred to benefit the needs of health care in one or more specific ways.
To that end, the ITHC intends to provide a number of awards to promote utilization of computers and technology to benefit health care so that providers can perform with more efficiency and with greater accuracy.

The Institute will consider any area of health care in which providers and patients will benefit.

The awards will be given to any organization (such as a school, public non-profit agency or medical clinic) that is established and accredited by the community in which it is situated. That organization may set the guidelines for the awards to specific individuals in those organizations. Proposals by an organization should be sent by the organization to the Institute (no longer than two pages). The Institute is not able to consider proposals from individuals. It is not intended that the awards be used as a charitable gift.

The award helped generate momentum to acquire further computers at SBJ, networking capabilities, and medical database systems. Following the ITHC award a new electronic patient data management program was installed at SBJ. Computer linked into a single network were placed in all four physician consultation rooms and at the front/social worker desk. When patients register, the following information is entered: name, birth date, where the patient comes from, parent names, patient occupation, and a small paragraph explaining their current situation. Then the nurse enters vital signs information, (such as blood pressure, temperature). When the patient goes to the consultation room the information is already available for the doctor on the computer. Then a prescription is generated from a printer linked to the network. The patient then proceeds with the prescription to the pharmacy. At the end of the day the reports are printed as well.

Assistance in Data Management of New Services

A new service of the perinatal assistant (Projecto San Gerardo) began a SBJ in 2006. The goal of this program is to help poor women during and after pregnancy. These young mothers often face very bleak conditions before, during, and after giving birth. This program provides health education for this service.

Prospects for 2007-2008

SBJ is devoted to care of the poor. As those that work in places like Comayagua know, funds, even if limited, can have great impact. Technology/electronic data management use clearly facilitates better resource utilization and facilitates administrative management of the center. A very exciting component of the award was the training of a young person in data entry. This gifted individual would otherwise have limited opportunities. As SBJ health services expand, including Projecto San Gerado, electronic patient data management will allow better analysis of the effectiveness of such services. Transfer for conversion of data currently obtained in paper format will allow better understanding of the needs of patients, including mothers-to-be and their children so all may face a better future.

[The Institute for Technology in Health Care is grateful to Thomas Adamkiewcz, MD for his efforts and stimulus for this award].