Design and Implementation of an Online Healthcare System (Case Study of General Hospital, Minna)

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to design and implement an online healthcare system for General Hospital Minna. Healthcare services rendered to outpatient, and can be defined as a patient who receives medical treatment without being admitted to a hospital. It is a patient who is not hospitalized for 24 hours or more but who visits a hospital, clinic or associated facility for diagnosis or treatment.

The combination of PHP, MYSQL and MACROMIDIA DREAMVEAVER was chosen for this project. The online outpatient database system offers functionalities to quick access to patient records. It also provides management with timely, confidential and secure medical reports that facilitates planning and decision making and hence improves medical service delivery.

To achieve these objectives we proposed a new method for entering and storing patient data.  The nurse ensues a patient for the doctor, views the patient’s history, diagnose and makes prescriptions based on the patient’s symptoms, this is based on the database for further reference and improving data security.

CHAPTER ONE

1.0 GENERAL OVERVIEW

1.1 INTRODUCTION

Hospitals are highly information-intensive organizations which spend substantial sums on information management and processing on inpatients and outpatients database system. It naturally follows that technologies that improve the gathering, storage, transmission and processing of information would be useful tools in hospital management. Patient base assessments of medical care are increasingly being used to measure the quality of health care. A variety of methods qualitative and quantitative are available. However, patient satisfaction surveys are frequently used. The study assessed the patient’s perception of care provided at an outpatient clinic has been carried out since established. An outpatient is a patient who is not hospitalized for 24 hours or more but who visit a hospital, clinic or associated facility for diagnosis or treatment. An inpatient, on the other hand, is “admitted” to the hospital and stays overnight or for an indeterminate time, usually, several days or weeks (though some cases, such as coma patients, have been in the hospital for years).treatment in this fashion is called inpatient care. The admission to the hospital involves the production of a hospital admission note. The leasing of the hospital is officially termed discharge, and involves a corresponding discharge note.

In the old days, Doctors provide care in their offices or even at the patient’s home. The trend reversed to where many treatments, tests, and surgeries were performed in a hospital setting. These days many treatment optionsexists, and your health care plan and your doctor can recommend what makes sense for you, along with a spectrum from less intensive to more intensive care. Outpatient care is any health care service provided to a patient who is not admitted to a facility. Outpatient care may be provided in a doctor’s office, clinic, the patient’s home or hospital outpatient department. In an urgent care facility, treatment is provided for conditions requiring prompt medical attention but that are not emergencies. Example of urgent care needs include ear infections, sprains high fevers, vomiting, and urinary tract infections.

Inpatient care is a care given to a patient admitted to a hospital, extended care facility, nursing home or another facility. Long-term care is the range of services typically provided at skilled nursing, intermediate care, personal care or eldercare facility. Inpatient hospitalization makes sense for major diagnostic, surgical or therapeutic services, where the patient’s condition or response to medication must be closely monitored. In the case of mental health treatment, a hospital stay may make sense if the person is suicidal or self-destructive or poses a threat to others (www.oupatientths.com).

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEMS

The General Hospital, Minna healthcare records of In-out patient exhibited a lot of difficulties in the system which is manual and is based on paper cards to collect a patient record. So it needed Information Technology (IT) based solution, an evaluation of alternative appointment systems to reduce waiting times and underutilization of a patient database system in the hospital. Some of the problems are stated below:

1. Data is stored in a way which makes it difficult for the management to retrieve useful information.
2. Difficulties in doctor patient appointment.
3. Inquiries about the patient’s record are sometimes difficult to deal with a patient’s record are not stored in a form that is easily accessible.
4. Problems were encountered is the time-consuming nature of the manual of the patient’s lists and retrieval of patient file for various reason from the existing record system.
5. The hospital does not have a back-up of medical records in the case of natural disaster for example flood, fire-outbreak.
6. Missing some or most of the patient’s records.
7. Patient’s information is usually mixed up while carrying files from one point to another.

1.3       AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF STUDY     

To design an online healthcare in-out patient database system for a medical unit of General Hospital Minna which will provide easy access to patient records. The study has the following objectives:

1. To explore the functions of the medical
2. To investigate the services being rendered to the outpatient.
3. To explore the challenges of the service being rendered to the outpatient manually.
4. To develop an online database system to solve the problems.
5. To implement the outpatient record on the online data manually.
6. To make a recommendation for the adoption of an online database management system.

1.4   SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

The scope of this study is General Hospital Minna but the study specifically concentrates/emphasizes on having a secure and centralized online database records system of patients in nursing and medical department. This research is going to be limited to measures taken to manage patient records and analyses. Likewise, some recommended security architecture that integrates various data security measure that is needed to achieve the desired security and privacy will be considered.

LIMITATION: The patient records is the compilation of medical data and information in its numerous forms, and the source of this problem isdiverse and reflect the extent of the progress that must be made in order for the full public healthcare potential of the hospital to be realized, improved patient care through improved outpatient records.

Problem-related to Hospital manual system can be summarized as follow.

1. Privacy and Security: there are still huge concerns in the healthcare industry about the privacy of patient data on computer systems and how to keep such information secure.
2. Hospital Resistance: hospitals usually have 10-20 minutes to see their patients and if their interaction with a CIS (Clinical Information System) during these sessions proves to be counterintuitive by taking up more time than is necessary.
3. Poor of electric power supply in Nigeria,
4. Initial cost of acquisition: The high cost of basic infrastructure of health technology can be a stumbling block to many hospitals.
5. Time-consuming: it involves a lot of time.

1.5       SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This large-scale sharing of medical records via network connections has the potential to bring us numerous benefits. Online healthcare record will be separated from the in-out patient at the hospital. This study would be found useful for the general hospital Minna because it will help to address the problem of security; privacy and confidentiality of patient health records. It also helps to check the delay, error, inconsistencies in medical records and timely access to historical records all of which had a significant impact on the quality of the hospital.

The implementation of the online healthcare system is vital to the provision of quality care, as well as adequate management of scares resources and productivity. Increased outpatient volumes and rapidly rising outpatient costs have affected commercial payers most dramatically because most continue to contract for outpatient services on a percent-of-charge basis. With this in mind, the single most significant benefit of implementing an OPPS is to institute a mechanism for reducing medical expenses and constraining the growth of these services.

1.6 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Healthcare or healthcare is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in human beings. Health care is delivered by practitioners in allied health, dentistry, midwifery (obstetrics), medicine, nursing, optometry, pharmacy, psychology, and other health professions. It refers to the work done in providing primary care, secondary care, and tertiary care, as well as in public health.

Access to health care varies across countries, groups, and individuals, largely influenced by social and economic conditions as well as the health policies in place. Countries and jurisdictions have different policies and plans in relation to the personal and population-based health care goals within their societies. Health care systems are organizations established to meet the health needs of target populations. Their exact configuration varies between national and subnational entities. In some countries and jurisdictions, health care planning is distributed among market participants, whereas in others, planning occurs more centrally among governments or other coordinating bodies. In all cases, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), a well-functioning health care system requires a robust financing mechanism; a well-trained and adequately-paid workforce; reliable information on which to base decisions and policies; and well maintained health facilities and logistics to deliver quality medicines and technologies

• DEFINITION OF TERMS

Hospital: A hospital is an institution that provides a broad range of medical service to a sick, injured and pregnant woman. Hospital employ doctors, nurse, and staffs to provide services for people who require medical attention.

Surgical: pertaining to or involving surgery or surgeons.

Medical: relating to the science or practice of medicine. Medicine is an applied science or practice of Medicine. It encompasses a variety of healthcare practice evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness in human beings. The word medicine is derived from the Latin ars medical, meaning the art of healing.

Pediatrics:  the branch of medicine dealing with children and their diseases.

Gynecologist: is the medical practice dealing with the health of the female reproductive system.

Dental: of or relating to the teeth. The dental section deals with general dental illness and the overall dental health of the patient. This section also develops an initial treatment plan and refers to specialist when more specialized treatment is required.

Ophthalmic: pertaining to eye and its diseases

Nursing:  the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury.

Pharmacy: the science or practice of the preparation and dispensing of medicinal drugs. The pharmaceutical section gives out the prescribe drugs to patients. This implies that a patient’s must first visit the doctor for complains before coming to this section to obtain drugs needed for the cure of illness.

Laboratory: a room or a building equipped for scientific research, or teaching, or for the manufacture of drugs or chemicals. Is section is responsible for conducting laboratory tests on patients e. g blood and urine test. For a test to be conducted on a patient, it has to be requested by the doctor.

Medical records: contain sensitive information and increasing computerization and other policy. This section form an essential part of the patient’s present and future health care. It provide the written collection of information about a patient’s health and treatment, which are essential for the present and continuing care of the patient.

Maintenance:  is the process of keeping or preserving something in good condition.

 Social welfare: governmental provision of economic assistance to persons in   need, which is the well being of the entire society.

X-ray: electromagnetic radiation of short wavelength produced when high speed electrons strike a solid target.

 Public health: is the health service to improve and protect community health, sanitation, immunization and prevent medicine.

 Admin: an abbreviation of the system operator.  Hospital administration is the management of the hospital as a business. It is made up of medical and health service managers.

It is evident that the number of the patient being treated is on the increase, therefore for a speeding and easier handling of patients medical records at this rate, requires some technology which brought about the need to computerize the patient’s records and medical history electronically in order to enhance operation effectively.

Database is organized collections of interrelated data stored with reduce redundancy to serve one of more application.

Outpatient can be defined as a patient who receives medical treatment without medical treatment without being admitted to a hospital. It is a patient who is not hospitalized for 24 hours or more but who visits a hospital, clinic or associated facility for diagnosis or treatment.

Online is a connection to or controlled by a central computer.

Computerization: The act of implementing a computer-based system to enhance business efficiency and productivity.

Software: These are written programs or procedures or rules or instruction and associated documentation pertaining to the operation of a computer system.

Patient Record:  A collection of files containing medical information and other related necessary information concerning a hospital’s patient.

Login: To enter into a computer software system normally by using the username and password verification.

Medical Record’s staff:  Staff inpatient record’s department in charge of collating patient’s records.

DOWNLOAD THE FULL WORK

DISCLAIMER: All project works, files and documents posted on this website, UniProjectTopics.com are the property/copyright of their respective owners. They are for research reference/guidance purposes only and some of the works may be crowd-sourced. Please don’t submit someone’s work as your own to avoid plagiarism and its consequences. Use it as a reference/citation/guidance purpose only and not copy the work word for word (verbatim). The paper should be used as a guide or framework for your own paper. The contents of this paper should be able to help you in generating new ideas and thoughts for your own study. UniProjectTopics.com is a repository of research works where works are uploaded for research guidance. Our aim of providing this work is to help you eradicate the stress of going from one school library to another in search of research materials. This is a legal service because all tertiary institutions permit their students to read previous works, projects, books, articles, journals or papers while developing their own works. This is where the need for literature review comes in. “What a good artist understands is that nothing comes from nowhere. All creative work builds on what came before. Nothing is completely original.” - Austin Kleon. The paid subscription on UniProjectTopics.com is a means by which the website is maintained to support Open Education. If you see your work posted here by any means, and you want it to be removed/credited, please contact us with the web address link to the work. We will reply to and honour every request. Please notice it may take up to 24 – 48 hours to process your request.