Paediatric clinic software: one record for a child, from the newborn check to the teenage years

A general clinic program is built around an adult with a complaint. A paediatric practice sees plenty of those every winter, but its real work is measuring the same child again and again, and noticing when something changes. The signs that your system no longer fits:

• The growth chart is a sheet of paper. Each weight is plotted by hand, and the sheet goes missing between visits.
• The birth details are asked for again. Birth weight, gestation and the Apgar scores sit in a maternity letter at home.
• The vaccination history lives in the parent's bag. When the booklet is forgotten, nobody can say which doses or batches were given.
• The form ignores the child's age. A toddler is asked adult questions, and nothing prompts a pubertal stage at nine.

Software earns its place in a paediatric practice when it keeps these facts as numbers and dated lines in one file per child.

A single weight says little; the shape of the line says a great deal.

Agree on this before comparing programs. The table is vendor-neutral: use it to test any system, paper folders included.

Here is one routine check-up in the paediatrics department of OPALEVI, from the booking to the card the parent takes home. Bold words are the labels on the screen.

1. 1

   Register the child once

   Enter the name, surname, gender and the Date of birth, which the curves and the age rules depend on, plus the Parent's name if you use it. OPALEVI warns you when a matching file may already exist.

2. 2

   Book the visit

   Reception chooses Add appointment with Email the patient a reminder the day before ticked, so the reminder goes to the email address on the child's file.

3. 3

   Measure

   A nurse fills in Vital signs: weight in grams or kilograms, height, temperature, pulse and oxygen saturation. Paediatrics adds Head circumference, and OPALEVI works out the BMI.

4. 4

   Fill in the child's record

   Under Development and immunisation, type the percentiles you read, tick the Milestones reached and add today's vaccine.

5. 5

   Print

   The buttons at the top print the prescription (Print prescription), a letter (Print referral letter) and the Growth and immunisation card.

6. 6

   Book the next visit

   Under Next steps, Book a follow-up appointment opens the booking form with the same child already chosen.

The form also follows the child's age: the newborn section in the first year, the fontanelles until the second birthday, the pubertal stages from eight. A section holding an entry always shows, and a file with no date of birth is asked everything.

Ask any paediatric clinic software whether it calculates percentiles or only stores them. OPALEVI's answer has two halves.

Curves drawn from the measurements

The Growth curves section draws Weight for age, Length for age and Head circumference for age from the vital signs of up to the last 24 check-ups in the department, plus today's point, in green, as it is typed. Age runs in months to two years, then in years up to eighteen, and the line never dips below a plateau between two readings. Without a date of birth there is no chart.

Percentiles you read and type

At the top of the record, the Growth section has three boxes from 0 to 100 %: Weight percentile, Length percentile and Head circumference percentile. The clinician types them. OPALEVI calculates no percentile or z-score and draws no reference bands, on purpose: a reference chart is thousands of numbers, and a copying slip would be invisible and wrong in the worst direction. Percentiles across visits then charts the typed weight and length percentiles once there are two.

The newborn

Newborn holds the Birth weight in grams, the Gestational age at birth, the length and head circumference at birth, and Apgar at 1 minute, Apgar at 5 minutes and Apgar at 10 minutes, typed as whole-number totals from the birth record: OPALEVI does not score the five signs. The Newborn examination lists fifteen systems, each normal, abnormal or Not examined. Fontanelles and sutures takes pins on a newborn skull, each with a finding and its size.

When the pregnancy was followed here too, the guide to gynaecology software covers the mother's side.

Development, screening and puberty

Milestones reached offers twenty milestones, from holding the head up to hopping on one foot, beside free Development notes. Hearing screening and Vision screening record pass, refer or not performed for each side; if your practice also runs an eye department, read ophthalmology clinic software. Otoscopy findings and the Body map pin a finding on an eardrum or on a figure of the body, drawn as a child's up to age twelve. From eight, Tanner stages are recorded per domain, from I to V. Feeding records breast, formula, mixed or solid food.

Immunisation

Choose the Immunisation status (complete, delayed or incomplete), note the Last vaccination, and add a line to the Immunisation register for each dose: vaccine, dose, date, Batch number and site. Next vaccination due is typed text.

The limits, plainly: OPALEVI holds no vaccination schedule, so it does not work out due dates or flag a late dose. And each check-up keeps its own register lines; a new check-up starts empty.

The Growth and immunisation card is the page parents keep: the birth details, Measurements at this visit, screening, milestones, immunisation status, the register lines of that visit and the next vaccine due. It prints no percentile and no curve: a bare number without its chart invites comparisons nobody can check.

In paediatrics the patient is rarely the person on the phone, so the family lives on the child's file:

• Contacts: up to twenty per child, with flags for an emergency contact, a Legal guardian who may consent for the child, and who may be told about their care.
• Consents: recorded with the exact wording, the date, who signed on the child's behalf and a scanned copy; they can be withdrawn, never edited.
• Reception: books, opens visits and takes payment, with Print receipt for the parent, but in a new clinic reads no clinical records until an administrator allows it. The desk's day is in the guide to clinic reception software.
• Across departments: Refer to a department puts the request on the receiving department's list, the Analyses card orders tests where the laboratory also works in OPALEVI, and letters attach under Visit documents.

A child who arrives acutely ill needs another kind of record; the guide to emergency department software follows that first hour.

Ask each program these questions, OPALEVI too, and answer them with a week of your own check-ups.

The modules the whole practice shares are on the features page; for a broader buying checklist, read how to choose clinic software.

Your first week in OPALEVI

Register as a private practice, or as a clinic if several specialties share the building; the First steps checklist on the Today screen then guides you:

1. 1

   Add your prices

   Add your services and prices for check-ups, sick visits and vaccinations.

2. 2

   Brand the paper

   Set up the report letterhead for the reports and the parents' cards.

3. 3

   Bring in the team

   Invite your colleagues with their own roles, then under Settings → Patient / visit make sure paediatrics shows the Date of birth and the Parent's name.