Hospital

Management System
INTRODuCTION
Hospital are generally large institutions, where patients are admitted for providing
medical care so that they gain health quickly and resume their normal life. Generally
hospitals comprise of many divisions and large number of staff members work there.
Each division of the hospital has to function in coordination with other divisions so that
patients are given quality care services, without putting any burden on them.
Staff members of the hospital have to work in coherence with each other so that patient
receives timely medical treatments, without any delay or deviations.
Coordinating with other divisions and people, in large organizations, is not an easy task.
Proper communication mechanism is required to be established so that right information
reaches right place at right time. Unless this is done, events and activities do not take
place smoothly and the patient has to bear pain of it in some form or the other.
In manual systems (hospitals, which are not computerized) communication channels
between different departments and people is established through form, and reports. As
per norms and procedures, set in the hospital, forms are filled or reports are generated and
sent to required department for information and necessary action.
Such types of communication channels have their own disadvantages. Information gets
lost in transit. It quite often reaches wrong destination. Most of the times, it gets delayed.
As a result of these drawbacks, patients do not get as good treatment as they should.
Think of a situation that a patient, who is to be operated, reaches Operation Theater on
stretcher and finds that doctor is not there, as doctor doesn’t have any operation in his
scheduled list. After certain frequency of such bad treatments, hospital gains seriously
bad reputation, which is dangerous for hospital and patient both.
Now the question is, what is the solution for proper functioning of a hospital and
providing satisfactory medical care. Well, the answer is, “Computerization”. In
computerized hospital management system, entire information is maintained at one
central place. Its accessibility is provided from each location, where the information is
required. Think of a situation that
the doctor in OPD advises patient to get admitted in urology ward. He immediately enters
patient’s data in computer and his advice to urology nurses. When patient reaches
urology ward, nurses there, refer doctor’s advice (which he had entered in computer)
through computer terminal. In such a situation, there is neither any delay nor any
confusion and patient gets admitted to hospital without any hassles.
In short, it can be said that computer is the best tool for managing a hospital efficiently.
PROBLEMS OF MANUAL SYSTEM
As mentioned above, in manual system coordination among departments and staff takes
place through forms and reports. This type of communication leads to following
problems:
1. Improper patient care.
2. Delay in medical treatment.
3. Deviations from schedules and treatments, suggested by the doctor for patients.
4. Dangerous circumstances or even the death of the patient.
5. Loss of facts and figures.
6. Poor coordination and careless attitude, which is hazardous for hospitals.
7. Improper staffing and unhygienic environment.
8. Lack of control over inventory.
9. Poor bed management.
10. Improper billing and loss of revenue.
11. Bad reputation of the hospital.
12. Irritation among patients and their caretakers.
CONCEPT OF COMPUTERIZED HOSPITAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
In computerized hospital management system, most of the hospital activities are
performed using computer. The key concept, which works behind any computerized
hospital management system, is to put the entire information on computer immediately,
as and when it is created and make it centrally available for others to access it. Concept of
computerized hospital management system is shown in figure 14.1.

Refer figure 14.1 and note that in computerized hospital management system, each
department of the hospital has its own computer. Computer of each department remains
connected to the central computer. Whenever any new data/information is created in any
department, person concerned of that department feeds it in the computer. Instead of this
data/ information being stored on local computer, it gets stored on central computer. For
example, when a patient is admitted to the hospital through OPD department. Doctor in
OPD enters his details along with name of the department, in which he has to be admitted
in his computer (computer in OPD). These details, instead of being stored on OPD
computer, get stored on central computer (recall that they are networked together). When
the patient reaches Heart Care ward for getting admitted, nurses on duty access central
computer to get patient’s history, doctor advice and doctor’s instructions to get him
admitted in Heart Care ward.
Similarly, if the patient has to undergo few pathological tests, he will have to make
payment first and then tests are conducted. To streamline this activity, nurse in the
department enters names of all the tests (along with the amount), which have to be carried
out, in her computer. All these details get stored on central computer. When a person
from patient’s side goes to the accounts department to pay the money, accountant
accesses patient’s information (on central computer) to find out the amount, which has to
be taken. After taking the due amount, he updates patient’s information that the amount
for pathological test has now been paid. After making the payment, patient is taken to
pathological section for tests. People there, access patient’s information to find out if the
test fees has been paid or not. On finding that the payment has been made, they carryout
the
test and enter test reports in computer. On accessing patient’s record, doctors in ward (say
Heart Care) are able to study patient’s test reports. Based on the reports, they carryout
further treatment. Important point to be noted in this explanation is that, in computerized
system, information created in one department by one person remains instantly accessible
by other persons of other departments. Neither any delay takes place nor it gets lost in
transit. All computerized hospital management system are designed and developed
around
this concept.
ARCHITECTURE OF A TYPICAL HOSPITAL MANAGEMENT
PACKAGE
Hospital management systems are generally large software. They provide computerized
solution for all important activities that take place in large hospitals. They are generally
modular in design. Thus they comprise of many modules. Each module takes care of
specific type of activities and works in total coordination with other modules. Following
are the modules, which are part of majority of computerized hospital management
systems.
1. Reception
2. Registration and admission
3. Pharmacy store
4. Laboratory
5. OT management
6. Blood bank
7. Ward management
8. ICU
9. Dietary (food and beverages)
10. Doctor’s module
11. Nursing module
12. Discharge summary
13. Financial accounting
14. MIS
15. Package maintenance module
RECEPTION
Many of the patient’s relatives come to the hospital to either enquire about the doctor’s
schedule or the whereabouts of a patient. Reception module is generally designed to
handle
(answer) all those queries, which have to be answered by the receptionist, sitting at
reception counter. For example, a query like, “In which ward is Mr. R.L. Sharma?” can
be
answered” using Reception module.
GISTRATION AND ADMISSION
When a patient is admitted to the hospital, his personal details like his name, address,
age,
date of birth etc. along with details of his illness and previous medication are entered into
computer through this module.
pHARMACY STORE
Every hospital has its own pharmacy store. Drugs and medicines are purchased in the
store
for the patients. Time to time they are issued to the patients for consumption. Un
consumed medicines are returned back to the store.
Pharmacy store module of hospital management system deals with stock accounting. It
keeps
track of all purchases, returns and issues made by the store. It also enables printing of:
1. Bills.
2. Payment collection summary.
3. Credit bill list.
4. Shift wise collection etc.
LABORATORY
Patient admitted to the hospital need to undergo many types of tests, and investigations
like urine test, blood test, ECG, X-ray, ultrasound. Laboratory module enables the
maintenance of all the test investigation and their results.
OT MANAGEMENT
This module deals with operation theatre activities, such as operations scheduled and the
involved. It also takes care of equipments used details, resource ordering, drug
order, gynecology detail recording, laboratory order, patient monitoring, blood request,
BLOOD BANK
The blood bank module provides information on the collection and storage of blood tests,
cross matching identifications and transfusion reactions. It also enables maintenance
new born baby details and details of delivery.
donor mailing list and donation ledgers. It also provides on-line stock of blood available
the blood bank.
WARD MANAGEMENT
Ward management module takes care of ward inventory, doctor’s visits, patient case
sheet,
diet ordering, blood requisition, transfer intimation, generation of discharge reports.
ICU
ICU module deals with intensive care unit activities. It helps in scheduling and
maintaining
drug orders, consultant details, specific blood requests etc.
DIETARY (FOOD AND BEVERAGES)
This module facilitates collection of information regarding various diet routines of
patients.
It also identifies resources required to satisfy diet orders. Depending upon the diet orders
and other requests, it prepares kitchen order plan to decide the menu of the day.
DOCTOR’S MODULE
This module helps doctors to keep track of the entire medical history of a particular
patient
and make additions into it, as and when required. Details such as medicines prescribed,
general medical records, previous medical consultations are all made available to the
doctor through this module.
NURSING MODULE
This module provides facility to the nurses to administer and maintain through patient
care.
It generally works in conjunction with doctor’s module. Nurses feed patient’s current
status, using this module.
DISCHARGE SUMMARY
This module enables preparation of discharge summary, which includes patient health
statement at the time of discharge, medical history, details of present illness and course in
hospital.
FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING
This module deals with all the financial transactions that take place within the hospital. It
also prepares normal books of accounts (such as cash book, bankbook etc.) and financial
statements (like trial balance, balance sheet etc.).
MIS
This module generates various management information system (MIS) reports, which are
required for planning, organizing and controlling the activities of the hospital.
PACKAGE MAINTENANCE MODULE
For the smooth and integrated functioning of computerized management system, many
package administration activities need to be carried out regularly. For example, security
levels need to be set, authorizations need to be assigned to the items, persons a4id
activities. Package maintenance module enables system administrator to perform all such
activities.
ADVANTAGES OF HOSPITAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Following are the advantages of computerized hospital management system:
1. It streamlines the activities of the hospital.
2. Establishes fast communication channels among various departments and persons of
the hospital.
;1]
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Removes confusions and doubts.
Improves services of the hospital.
Enables doctors and staff members
to
take
proper
care
of
the
patient
and
thus
enable fast recovery.
Improves customer satisfaction.
Checks loss of revenue.
Saves time, money and efforts. Thus
improves
efficiency
of
staff
members.