DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF MATERNITY INFORMATION SYSTEM

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background of the Study

A hospital information system(HIS) is an element of health informatics that focuses mainly on the administrational needs of hospitals. In many implementations, A HIS is a comprehensive, integrated information system designed to manage all the aspects of a hospital operation, such as medical, administrative, financial and legal issues and the corresponding process of services. Hospital information system is also known as hospital management software(HMS) or hospital management system. Hospital information system provides a common source of information system about a patient health history. The system has to keep data in a secured place and controls who can reach the data in certain circumstances. This system enhances the ability of health care professionals to coordinate care by providing a patient’s health information and visit history at the place and time it is needed. Patient’s laboratory text information also includes visual result such as x-rays which maybe reachable by professionals. HIS provides internal and external communication among health care provides. HIS are often composed of one or several software components with specialty-specific extension, as well as of a large variety of sub-system in medical specialties from a multi-vendor market. Specialized implementations name for example(LIS), policy and procedure management system, radiology information system (RIS) or picture archiving and communication system(PACS).

Every mother and child deserves the best quality of care throughout; from anti-natal to post-natal care. Maternal services are aimed at maintaining and promoting proper preventive care for mothers and their children. (The world health organization,2017) identify hospital management system as a key building block for improvement in health care. Regarding clinic and administrative proccesses. A maternity home, or maternity housing program, is a form of supportive housing provided to pregnant women (Vanden, 2017). Today’s maternity housing programs support a woman in need of a stable home environment to reach her goals in a variety of areas, not just pregnancy. In the past, many maternity homes had jailhouse aspects and forcibly institutionalized lower-class “fallen” unwed pregnant women.

Maternity homes are not to be confused with maternity hospitals, or other facilities where women give birth. Another sort of temporary housing for pregnant women are the maternity hostels which have become widespread in countries such as India where commercial surrogacy is big business (Shamita, 2018). ‘Maternity home’ means any home, place hospital or institution in which facilities are maintained for the care of four or more women, not related by blood or marriage to the operator, during pregnancy or during or within ten days after delivery (Geraldine, 2016).

A maternity hospital specializes in caring for women during pregnancy and childbirth. It also provides care for newborn infants, and may act as a centre for clinical training in midwifery and obstetrics. Formerly known as lying-in hospitals, most of them, like cottage hospitals, have been absorbed into larger general hospitals, where they operate as the maternity department.

A maternity home is a residence for pregnant women (Igwebuike, 2017). The number of homes has decreased over the past two decades, and existing homes often have a waiting list of women. This decrease has been attributed to the decriminalization of abortion, availability of the birth control pill and other changes in society.

The women who live in a maternity home may pay a small fee or no fee to live in the home and they often apply for public assistance and Medicaid payments. The women who live in a maternity home may be adults or adolescents. They may also be teenage foster children who are wards of the court, if the maternity home has a license for group foster care. In many situations, in addition to birthing classes and counseling that are provided at the group home, the women that live in maternity homes may also be involved in some type of vocational or educational programs, such as a program allowing her to complete high school or her General Educational Development (GED).

Before computerized Materiality System came into practice, it was difficult to keep proper records of the daily activities of materiality, patient information, maintenance schedule of equipments in the materiality, and how funds are being allocated and used. This resulted in waste of money, time and manpower.

Most materiality face several challenges with materiality System because some of them are still using manual processes, while the ones that use the computerized method are also faced with the challenge of adjusting to it. Such problems include:

• High cost of software development, deployment and improvement.
• Difficulty in migrating from manual processes, because both staff and patients are used to the manual processes and so are unable to speedily cope with the new system.
• Lack of IT friendly medical personnel is also presenting several challenges.
• Huge influx of patients visiting government hospitals makes the process of migrating to automated processes highly difficult.

They do not have the patience to wait for registration and data entry and often fail to understand the functioning of automated processes. Considering the above, there is need for the improvement of computerized materiality  information system to such hospitals as it would help provide and customize clinical data, enable faster diagnosis with ready-made templates, allow doctors to follow advanced medical prescription patterns, and so on.

The existing model adopted for the research is Mayo Clinic Model. The model is a Windows application that runs in any type of windows ranging from Windows 7 and above. The model is able to register pregnant women and newly admitted patients; it can also keep records of registered patients/pregnant women that entered the hospital each day. The model lacks adequate security features, it could not enable easy retrieval of information, it only store information of the women and that of the newly born babies it can’t handle it and it cannot handle calculations.

1.2       Statement of the problem 

For a very long time now, some maternity has been without a reasonable improvement due to poor record system. So this inadequate record/information in the system cannot be allowed to continue, something must be done to improve the growth of the maternity. It was discovered that documentations are been done manually in the management system which gives them a lot of short comings. Some of their weak points are seen in the following:

1. Security problem: When the maternity’s documents or files are not properly secured it can allow an unauthorized user to have access to their files.
2. To enhances information integrity.

• To reduces transcription errors.

1. To reduces duplication of information entries.
2. To optimizes report turnover times.
3. Inadequate calculations: Most of the billings are miscalculated due to the use of manual system one can easily make mistakes.

1.3       Aim and Objectives of the Study

The aim of this study is to design and implement a computerized maternity information system.

This project will achieve the following objectives

1. To design a system that will provide adequate network to avoid unauthorized access to the files in the department
2. Efficient and accurate administration of finance, diet of patient ,engineering, and distribution of medical aid, It helps to view a broad pictures of hospital growth

• Improved monitoring of drugs usages, and study of effectiveness. This leads to the reduction of adverse drugs interactions while promoting more appropriate pharmaceutical utilization.

1. Enhances information integrity, reduces transcription errors, and reduces duplication of information entries.
2. Hospital software is easy to use and eliminates errors caused by handwriting.
3. To design a system that can keep records of new born babies with date in the maternity.

• To design a system that can quickly retrieve files in respect to a particular activity

1.4       Significance of the Study

There are setbacks in information dissemination and flow in the manual way pregnant women are attended to in Antenatal unit thus the researcher felt the need to embark on this study in other to identify and provide solutions to those setback as the objectives of the work include. The work will create on awareness of the ideal contents of Antenatal care which include: Preconception counseling, Assessment of risk factors, Assessment of fetal well-being etc.

1. The research will enable information to be provided in educating especially first time pregnant mothers about normal discomforts of pregnancy, Emotional aspects (including post-anta depression so that these mothers are being reassured and fears driver away.
2. The research will be able to incorporate a computerized system that can keep track of information about Antenatal patients and their History (medical examinations)

• The research will be able to clear the doubts of the relevance of Antenatal care.

1. Finally, the research will center on educating mothers, providing information to health care agents and the antenatal unit for proper information flow.

1.5       Scope of the Study

This project is specially designed to cover the computerization of the Maternity system using Chioma Maternity Ozobulu Anambra State as a case study.

1.6       Limitations of Study

During research, the researcher encountered a lot of problems in carrying out the research. Such problems are:

1          Time Constraints: Enough time is needed to carry out a detailed research work in order to collect data and other important facts that will be useful to the study. The researcher being a final year student had to share the time for this research. The allotted some of his time to other courses offered in the semester, some to his seminar and the remaining time for this research work (project). At the end, he was restricted to a small sample of information and materials.

2          Financial constraints: This was another limitation to this work because money is needed to carry out a detailed research work which is not easily born by every student. For lack of finance, the author was also restricted to a small sample of material.

• Non – availability of the necessary materials needed for the work: This is also another major constraint in the course of carrying out this work. This is because it has been noticed that most of the required materials needed for the project are not documented. Some that are documented lacked storage facilities like the library where they can be researched.
• CONVID 19:            Due to the pandemic, moving from one place to another in search of the necessary material was restricted.

1.7       Definition of Terms

Ancillary:                   A person whose work provides necessary support to the primary activities of an organization, institution, or industry.

Bilirubin:                    Pigment in the blood, urine, and bile that result from the normal breakdown of hemoglobin in the red blood cells.

Blastocyst:                  The structure of cells formed once the zygote reaches the uterus, following the  repeated division of cells as it travels from the fallopian tube.

Cervix:                       The narrow, lower end of the uterus that softens and opens during labour to allow the baby to come out

Computer Software: Or just software is a general term used to describe a collection of computer programs, procedures and documentation that perform some tasks on a computer system.

Computerization:      This is the process of programming a computer to do a particular work for a particular purpose.

Dating scan:               Also known as the ultrasound scan or the 12-week scan. The scan will be offered  from eight to 14 weeks to all expectant mothers by their GP or midwife. Typically carried out at a hospital ultrasound department, the dating scan helps to give a more accurate EDD (estimated date of delivery) and will check how many babies are in the mother’s womb, whether the baby is positioned correctly and that the development is normal

Eclampsia:                 A serious complication of pregnancy, characterized by seizures. It is the more severe form of preeclampsia.

Embryo:                     An unborn baby in the earliest stage of development. The embryonic stage occurs after the blastocyst has implanted itself into the uterine wall, and is when the baby’s brain and nervous system, limbs, and major organs begin to form. After the eighth week, the embryo is then classified as a fetus.

Epidural:                    A type of anesthesia used to relieve pain during delivery. The catheter is placed in the epidural space in the vertebra area in the mother’s back.

Epidural:                    A type of localised anaesthetic used for pain relief during birth, particularly during a Caesarean section. It is injected into the space around the spinal cord and causes loss of sensation in the legs and pelvis – effectively ‘blocking’ the sensation of pain.

Fontanelles                 The six soft spots on a baby’s head that allow its skull to compress during birth so it can pass through the birth canal. The fontanels completely fuse by the time the child is two years old

Haemorrhoids:           Enlarged, swollen veins which appear around the rectum and anus. In pregnancy they are caused by hormones relaxing the veins.

Jaundice:                    A condition where a person’s skin and the whites of their eyes take on a yellowish tinge.

Maternity:                  This is hospital specialized in caring for women during pregnancy and childbirth.

Meconium:                 A tar-like substance passed by a baby as their first poo. Passing meconium before birth may be a sign of fetal distress

Trimester                   A time span of three months during pregnancy, each marked by different phases of fetal development

Uterus:                       Also known as the womb. The uterus is a hollow muscular organ located in the lower body of the woman. It is where the fetus gestates from conception to birth. The fertilised egg will attach to the walls of the uterus, where it will develop into a baby over approximately nine months.

Ventouse                    A suction cap that is sometimes used during birth to help to pull the baby out of the birth canal

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