DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF PATIENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Generally, computer has played an important role in global economy in various ways. The Computer is used in many different fields such as in education for learning, in entertainment industries, for management, for problem solving and in business e.t.c.

Due to its importance it has been recognized world-wide. One of its vital roles is in management systems.

Today in health services, management of patient records requires a process and keeping of records from different departments in the hospital. All these record are very vital information needed by the organization for efficient and effective operation.

Patient Management Systems (PMS) are extensive, coordinated information systems design to manage patient’s data in hospitals with the administrative process. Health care centers depend on patient information, for the efficient of administrative process, for better management. The principle objective of PMS is to streamline the stream of data from the hospital towards decision making for patient planning and management in an enhanced and effective ways. Recording of data, be it medical, individual, money related or lawful, or recording of medicinal faculty data on paper is at danger of thieves, fire, mislay by the staff and even altering the content. A Computerize PMS will be important in light of the fact that, there are a considerable measure of challenges in keeping up a lot of data on paper, particularly as there is usually no backup for the data, access to data can be tedious in the event that require for the search of a file, and accuracy is required in the recording of key data, and the administrator cannot manage all that is composed on the tremendous measure of paper to be utilized. Hence, it is very important for health organizations like hospitals and clinics to have a computerized patient management system.

There are various clinic administration applications, open source and non-open source, yet they are generally hard to modify or restrictive and immoderate, and their plans are not promptly accessible for upgrades. The aim of this project work is, to design and implement a patient record management system that would upgrade data integrity, avoid translation slips by minimizing the risks of wrong documentation, decrease duplication of data, avoid the risk of pilferage as related information would be promptly accessible electronically, and keep records of in and out patients.

Effective management of data in organization is important for the ideal upkeep and development of that organization. Management of data in health organization can in some cases be the difference between life and death. Hospitals will be benefit from the proposed system.

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The Federal Medical Council (FMC), defines patient records as “ vital information that involves recording information, images generated based on fact, signs, and history of patient record and treatment received, which is of legal, confidential that makes it possible to have communication among members of the hospitals team and the continuity of the care given to the individual” patient records need to be legible, organized and documented.

The term hospital is derived from the Latin word “hospitalis‟, which identifies the visitors and their treatment. The word hospital show the early utilization of the establishment not as a place for healing, the hospital then was used as a place of safety, refuge and protection for tired travellers and for the poor. The term hospital first came up in Greece as Aesculapius, named after the Greek god of medicine, Aesculapius (Risse, 1990). For a lengthy period of time they associates with foundations of religious, the example of such are, the Hindu hospital of the middle age of the European (fifth to fifteenth century) was opened in Sri Lanka in the fifth century B.C. the Hotel Dieu in paris was a hospital setup for general used in ad 660 is still functioning till today(Science Museum, 2014)

An initial data or information received and stored at the initial stage is called record. records Management is the discipline of professional or their practice of governing and controlling the most vital information throughout the records life cycle for the organization.

A medical error is a preventable adverse result that may happen during a medical process independent of whether it is obvious or destructive to the casualty (the patient). Medical errors happen when a medical staff of hospitals utilizes an unsuitable system of care or performs a wrong strategy of care. These errors are frequently referred to as human errors in hospitals. Example of error that may occur include wrong documentation, misdiagnosis, administration of wrong medication to the patient or in the wrong way, which at times may be because of misrepresentation of data, illegible handwriting, insufficient medical attendant to-patient, Patient action may also contribute to the medical error (Wikipedia 2014).

Most hospitals today still keep the manual method of operating (paper and pen) and strategies for keeping records. This procedure may include use of printed forms that incorporate all the important fields for the medical process of medical department, the development of computerized world and the presence of modern day devices which work at high speeds recommend that this manual method can be enhanced and be more productive. Digital advancements of this methodology can reduce expenses, enhance patient safety and increase the pace of the manual method, thereby making it more proficient.

The University Health Service (UHS) of Federal University of Technology Minna as a case study uses manual process in gathering data and managed their patients, which in some cases they encountered loss of patients files, the card unit where the patients files are being stored are not well arrange because of multiple patient files. Implementation and uses of Computerized Patient Management System in Federal University of Technology Minna Health Services will provide a lot of benefit to the staff and management.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Some of the problems that this project is set to solve in the manual method of keeping and retrieving patient information system are:

v Difficulties in retrieving files: To retrieve a particular file among all the files manually is always a difficult problem as its usually takes a lot of time. In extreme case, it may lead to an emergency.

v Long queuing: During registration, students remain in a queue for a long period before they could be registered.

This problem can be solved by computerizing the hospital patient information.

v Documentation: There is a lot of problem in keeping all the patient files, since a large number of patients files are to be documented.

v Poor communication: the clinic experience poor communication among their staff because the receptionist cannot communicate with the doctor about a patient without leaving his office files likewise the Nurses, Pharmacist.

1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The aim of this project is to design and implement a Computerizes Patient Management System for University Health Service of Federal University of Technology Minna, Niger State.

The main objectives of this project work include the following;

v To review and analyze the existing manual process of registration.

v To design a computerize Patient Management system.

v To implement the designed system

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Presently the University Health Service (UHS) of Futminna operates on a manual records system; with the implementation of this project work, the benefits listed below will be achieved;

v It will provide adequate security to loss of patient file.

v It will reduce queuing during registration

v It will enhance, improve and ease medical services.

v It will minimize the use of paper in making records.

v It will reduce the cost of money spent on purchasing written documents like paper, pen, files printing of patient card etc.

1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The scope of this project work is to design a system that will enable the receptionist to register patients, assign patients to doctor, and enable communication between doctor, pharmacist, receptionist, nurses and lab technician.

1.6 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

v This system is limited with the students and staff of FUTMinna.

v The system does not take into account payment for any treatment.

1.7 DEFINITIONS OF TERMS

v Computerization: The act of converting manual functions or system into a Computer system

v Clinical: dealing with how to practically manage patients, contrasting with Prehealth sciences

v Data: A representation of facts or ideas in a formalized manner capable of being communicated or manipulated by some process.

v Doctor: is a member of medical association, the one who is trained and licensed to heal and treat the sick person.

v Patients: A person who receives treatments from a doctor or other medically educated person.

v Hospitals: A building designed to diagnosis and treats the sick, injured or dying. they usually have staff of doctors and nurses to aid in the treatment of patients

v UHS: university health services, is a medical center in the school campus where patients are diagnosed and treated.

v Systems administrator

The systems administrator-database administrator is responsible for systems administration to ensure high uptime of the system and for handling all database back-up and restore activities.