Context
The Dekut Software Development Center is a provider of software development services based at Dedan Kimathi University of Technology. We are currently developing a Community Health Toolkit (CHT)-based application designed to facilitate the referral and linkage of community members to primary health care (PHC) facilities for breast cancer screening. In the proposed workflow, Community Health Workers (CHWs) will identify women who are due for breast cancer screening according to existing guidelines and refer them to nearby health facilities for the service.
Due to the wide range of services offered at PHC facilities and the challenge of staff shortages, many facilities designate specific days of the week for certain services to manage workload effectively. For example, a facility may offer breast cancer screening services only on Wednesdays for booked clients, with a maximum number of appointments—such as 10—per day.
Pain Point
To enable a seamless referral process, it is desirable that CHT supports efficient scheduling of facility referral appointments based on slot availability at each facility. This feature would display the next available appointment dates at the time the referral is made. For instance, if a CHW visits a household on 12th June 2025 and identifies an eligible woman who is willing to go for a breast examination at the facility, the app should automatically suggest the upcoming Wednesday, 18th June 2025, provided the facility has not reached its maximum of 10 appointments for that day. If all slots are filled, the app should then suggest the next available Wednesdays, such as 25th June 2025, 2nd July 2025, etc., ensuring efficient scheduling and optimal use of available resources.For the health care provider, the form for assessing the patient in the app should also be activated on the same available date.
Technical Workflow Expected
Once the referral date is selected on the referral form for the patient, the system should automatically determine whether that date is available and whether the number of referral reports submitted for that date exceeds the maximum (e.g., 10).If the criteria are not met, the system should suggest the next available date.
Additionally, when adding a health facility, there should be an option to indicate the preferred appointment day (e.g., Wednesday) and also indicate the number of appointments for that day.
We are happy to collaborate with the community and interested partners to explore how we can make these improvements.