Can we use fixed period value of a data element in an indicator in DHIS2?

Question

I need to have the Beds’ utilization rate (%) calculated for my 5 Org Unites.

I collect the "Number of occupied beds" as a separate data element on a monthly basis. The number of beds per Org Unit is fixed and I have collected the information for them only once in September 2016 in a data element called “Number of Beds”. The number of beds does not change.

How can I set up the denominator of the indicator (“Number of occupied beds”/Number of Beds) so that the value of the indicator is calculated based on the value of the “Number of Beds” data element for September 2016 and not the value of the current month (apparently there is no values for the months after September 2016)?

I can not use constants, because the number of beds is different for each Org Units and I do not want to create 5 separate Indicators for the 5 separate Org Units.

At the same time I do not want to record the number of beds to be the same every month, since it is confusing and it will look like we add up the same number of debs every month, which is not the case.

Is there a solution to this issue?

Answer 1

I'm sure by now you've figured a way around this issue but please remember that your fixed [Number of "available" Beds] is in fact a semi-permanent number that can change at any time if one becomes damaged;

You'll have much more flexibility by capturing two sets of values each month; you can also set up a custom entry form to make it simpler for users

Answer 2

One way to get closer would be to think of a period for which the "Available beds" is valid. E.g. if you decide it's good enough to update this value every year or every 6 months then put this data element in a data set with Yearly or Six-monthly period type.

Make sure the aggregation operator for your "Available beds" data element is set to "Average (sum in org hierarchy)". This is similar to how you would set up annual population data.

The monthly indicator values for "Bed days"/"Available beds" will use the same denominator value for the whole period the data element "Available beds" is entered, e.g. for every month in 2016 if it was entered for a Yearly data set for 2016.

Answer 3

There does not appear to be a solution to this at present. However we are looking to see if there are any possible ways to extend the expressiveness of indicators in the future, and we will consider this as a possible use case for such extensions. This is not a promise of any kind, but we are taking the use case seriously. I have referenced this use case from https://jira.dhis2.org/browse/DHIS2-3198.