Hospital Information Systems



Abstract

Our hospital is one of the famous in the city, in terms of the health care services. We have to manage hundreds of patients visiting highly specialized consultants, and for other medical services. Over the past few years, due to the increasing record keeping and information management loads, we are facing considerable difficulties as our hospital execute most of the tasks relying on manual systems. As this is the age of information, and management is convinced on the point that making the processes automated will improve the efficiency of the hospital, staff and the patient's service quality, we have decided to develop the information systems for the hospital. I am designated to present the analysis of the current system and our requirements for the information systems to the IT person. In this essay, I will discuss the current methodologies used for information processing, and what information systems will be helpful for the successful operation of the hospital.

Hospital Information System

In today's age of information, the use of information technology has become a vital ingredient for continuous success of any organization. Research shows that development of advanced information technology infrastructure remarkably helps the business in improving the performance and better management of the resources (Rainer R.K. & Turban E., 2008).

Method

Before proposing the requirements for information systems, I list down the main tasks performed in our hospital on daily basis using the manual systems. For example, the ultrasound department collects the payment independently, and at the end of the day, the amount collects as a total. The list of main tasks is as below.

a. Manage the appointments of patients with over 100 specialized consultants; all these consultants conduct their OPD on different days and timings.

b. Creation of Patients' appointment cards and record files.

c. Managing the medical history records.

d. Collection of payments in various regards, and generating manual receipts.

e. Searching for the patient's record and medical history, in case he loses the manual appointment card given.

f. Inventory management for all the departments including pharmacy, X-ray, Operation Theater, canteen, Laboratory, Intensive Care Units.

g. Maintaining the attendance records of the employees.

h. Payments of fixed salaries to the staff, and commission based salaries to the consultants.

i. Taking food orders from the admitted patients and ensuring the timely delivery of quality food.

j. Development of health care policies, based on the research.

Hospital Information System

To ensure execution of these tasks in a more systematic and proper way, I will recommend the use of hospital information systems. From hospital's perspective, the main components of the information systems are as follows (Biohealthmatics, 2006):

Clinical Information System (CIS)

(CIS) is essentially a form of Transaction Processing systems (TPS). These systems are used for data entry, receipt generation and record keeping purposes. CIS may be kept decentralized (e.g. laboratory systems, ECG management systems) or centralized, by generating the uniquely numbered registration numbers for patients (electronic medical record number).

The development of CIS will help the hospital's cash counters to ...