Health worker visit app for NGOs: send staff to communities and track who was seen

Dispatch health workers to households or clinics, track which visits happened, and manage patient follow-ups.

Who it's for

A community health NGO or CBO working in a few wards, with a programme manager, two or three supervisors, and a team of community health promoters who walk the villages and informal settlements every morning. The problem bites at month end, when the donor asks how many households were reached and who was referred, and the office has to count paper registers one line at a time.

The problem today

Every morning I split the households on a printed list and send the names on WhatsApp. The promoters tick their registers in the field, then bring the books to the office on Friday, or send photos of the pages that I have to read on my phone. Some visits are written twice. Some are never written at all. A mother who needed a follow-up visit is remembered only because one promoter still has her in her head. When the sub-county or the donor asks for the report, my supervisors sit for days typing the same figures into a spreadsheet, and I still cannot tell you honestly where my team was on Tuesday.

What the app does, screen by screen

1. My visits today — The community health promoter opens the app and sees the households and clinic stops assigned to her for the day, with the route on a map.
2. Visit form — The promoter fills the checklist at the household, records who was seen, what was given, and whether a referral is needed, and closes the visit there and then.
3. Household file — The promoter and supervisor see the household, the members registered, the past visits, and what was promised last time.
4. Follow-ups due — The supervisor and promoter see which patients are due for a return visit this week and which ones have been missed.
5. Approvals — The supervisor reviews visits flagged for checking, approves referrals, and sends back anything that looks wrong before it enters the report.
6. Manager's day — The programme manager sees the day across all areas: who was dispatched, who has reported, what is still open, and which ward is behind.
7. Team and areas — The manager sets up promoters, supervisors, wards and household lists, and decides who sees which area.

Who uses it and what it keeps track of

• Households and patients — Household name and village, who lives there, the phone number, the people being followed, and any condition the team is tracking. Promoters see only the areas they are assigned to. Supervisors and the manager see all.
• Visits — Who was visited, which promoter went, the date and time, the checklist answers, notes, and whether the visit was completed or not found at home. The promoter sees her own, the supervisor sees her team, the manager sees everything.
• Follow-ups and referrals — The patient, why the follow-up was raised, when it is due, which facility a referral was sent to, and whether it was closed. Seen by the promoter handling it, the supervisor and the manager.
• Staff and areas — Each promoter and supervisor, the ward or village they cover, their phone number, and whether they are active. Only supervisors and the manager see this.

What it changes for the business

The register stops being a book that travels to the office on Friday. A visit is recorded where it happens, so the same household is not counted twice and a missed one cannot hide. Follow-ups come back to the team by themselves instead of living in someone's memory, so patients who need a second visit actually get one. The manager can see by midday which ward is behind and move people the same day. When the donor or the sub-county asks what was done, the answer is already in the system and nobody spends the week typing it again.

The one decision that matters

The decision is whether a visit counts the moment the promoter ticks it, or only after a supervisor approves it. Trusting the tick keeps the team moving and the figures live, but one careless entry goes straight into the donor report. Requiring approval on everything is honest but slow, and supervisors will fall behind until promoters stop bothering. Go in between. Let an ordinary visit count immediately, with the location recorded when the form is filled, and send only the exceptions to approvals: referrals, households not found at home, and anything a promoter edits after the day has closed. The report stays clean without the supervisor becoming a bottleneck.

What to build first, and what can wait

Build the assignment of households, the visit form, the household file, follow-ups due and the manager's day view. That is the whole paper register replaced. Leave out commodity and stock tracking, transport allowances, and donor report formats for each funder. Those change with every grant, and you will design them better once you can see three months of real visits in the system rather than guessing now.

How BooDoo builds it

You describe the programme in plain words and BooDoo builds it. It makes the real backend: the household and visit records, and sign-in for promoters, supervisors and the manager, each seeing a different screen and only their own area. The same request gives a website on its own address for the office, and an Android app for the field team that you can publish to Google Play under your own account. Maps show the route, messages go out for follow-ups due, and a WhatsApp button opens a chat with the office. When the grant changes, you describe the change.

How you'll know it works

By the time the team is back in the evening, the manager already knows how many households were reached and which patients are due next week, without calling anyone or waiting for a register.

Build it

Paste this in and it gets built.

I run a community health programme for an NGO in Kenya. I want a tool for my staff only. Each morning my supervisors should assign households and clinic stops to our community health promoters by ward, and each promoter opens her phone and sees her list for the day with the route on a map. At the household she fills a short checklist, says who she saw, adds notes, and raises a follow-up or a referral if it is needed. Promoters should only see their own area, supervisors their team, and I should see everything. Referrals and households not found at home must come to the supervisor for approval. I need a follow-ups due list for the week, a file for every household showing past visits, and a manager's view of the day showing who has reported and which ward is behind. Reminders should go out for follow-ups that are due.