Admin Creating and Managing Institutions - hmislk/hmis GitHub Wiki
Creating and Managing Institutions
Overview
Institutions are the top-level organisation units in HMIS. This page covers creating a new institution, editing its details, viewing the institution list, and the full set of fields available on the institution form.
When to Use
- Setting up a new hospital, branch, or collecting centre for the first time
- Updating contact details, bank information, or credit limits for an existing institution
- Linking a sub-institution (branch) to its parent
- Managing the bill prefix or cheque printing name for an institution
Navigating to Institution Management
- Click Administration → Manage Institutions
- The institution management index opens
- Select Institutions from the index to see the institution list and form
Required privilege: AdminInstitutions
The Institution List
Institutions are displayed in a list on the left side. Click an institution name to select it and see its details on the right. Use the filter box to search by name.
Creating a New Institution
- Click Add New (green button)
- The right-side form clears for entry — fill in the Basic Details tab:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | The full legal or operational name of the institution |
| Printing Name | The name used on cheques, bills, and printed documents |
| Code | A short code identifier |
| Bill Prefix | Prefix added to all bill numbers generated by this institution |
| Parent | The parent institution (if this is a branch or sub-entity) — type to search |
| Route | The delivery/collection route this institution belongs to |
| Point of Issue No. | A number identifying the point of issue (for regulatory or internal use) |
| Description | Optional free-text description |
| Type | Institution type — select from the dropdown (e.g. Hospital, Lab, Collecting Centre) |
| Credit Limit | Maximum credit allowed for this institution |
| Phone | Contact telephone number |
| Fax | Fax number |
| Contact email address | |
| Owner Email | Owner's email (used for certain alert notifications) |
| Address | Physical address |
| Web | Website URL |
| Bank | The bank branch used for this institution — type to search |
| Account No. | Bank account number |
- Click Save (top right of the form)
Editing an Institution
- Click the institution in the list to select it
- Update the fields as required
- Click Save
Deleting an Institution
- Select the institution in the list
- Click Delete (confirmation required)
Warning: Deleting an institution removes it permanently. Any users, departments, fee records, and bills linked to it may become orphaned. Only delete institutions that have never been used in live transactions. Consider deactivating instead.
Parent-Child Institution Relationships
An institution can be linked to a Parent institution using the autocomplete field. This is used to model branch networks:
- The main hospital is the parent
- Branches and collecting centres set their parent to the main hospital
- Reports and summaries can then be grouped by parent institution
Bill Prefix
The Bill Prefix (also called Institution Code internally) is prepended to every bill number generated by the institution. For example, if the prefix is "CHN", bills will be numbered CHN-000001, CHN-000002, etc. Each institution should have a unique prefix.
Technical Notes (Admin/Developer)
Institutions are stored as Institution entities. The institutionType field maps to the InstitutionType enum (Hospital, LabCollectingCentre, CollectingCentre, etc.). The parentInstitution field is a self-referencing relationship. The institutionCode field is the bill prefix. Saving calls institutionController.saveSelectedInstitution().