Background of Study
A Hospital Management System (HMS) isan efficient, multipurpose software used to manage clinics, hospitals, polyclinics and multi-specialty clinics which are complete with tools to manage Out Patient Department (OPD),(Endeavour African Group, 2013). HMS assists in managing doctor’s fees, pharmacy, laboratory, inventory, accounts, referrals and patient’s profiles.
The way some hospitals in this part of the world manage and carry out some activities especially those that concern patient, are such that it poses lots of stress and fatigue to both the patient and the staff in the hospital. In some hospitals, the activities like registration of patient in hospital are done manually. We have experienced situation where a patients has to register twice just because of loss of file in the hospital. We see cases where a patient forgot his hospital number or in ability of patient to talk to the severity of the ailment and the staff has to go through a lot of stress to be able to retrieve a file and also due to improper keeping of information it has led to the failure of knowing the drugs that the patient is allergic to and administering the drug that is not compatible with the body of the patient may worsen the heath of the patient. The worst is that some patients in critical condition have lost their life due to the long process of manually retrieving health history records (Case files) which would enable the doctor check past record to be able to detect the patient’s problem and know the next action to take.
Also patients sometimes end up queuing up to see the doctor for minor cases there by worsening their health situation as a result of stress, wastage of time and fatigue to the patients and doctors. It also makes the documentation and retrieval of patient past information difficult, as well as waste time and resources. We also have problem with missing patient’s files, inability of the current doctor to attend to patients and read the information in the file documented by the previous doctors. (Bello,Arogundade, Sanusi, Ezeoma, Abioye-Kuteyi&Akinsola2004) and(Akadiri, Olusanya&Omitola2009) confirmed that most sub Saharan African countries like Nigeria, have poor knowledge and utilization of ICT among their general populace.
Some patient find it very uncomfortable to interact with the doctors directly to give a full details of what is wrong with them due to humiliation and emotions that undergo in face to face setting, and as such the doctor will find it difficult to diagnose the ailment due to incomplete information given by the patient and the patient sometimes end up giving the doctor irrelevant information which will also not aid in proper diagnosis and proper treatment of the patient. The reluctance of men to consult medical professionals and seek social support is amplified for prostate cancer sufferers, who at various stages in the course of the illness and its treatment might experience problems with sexual performance and continence (Hines, 1999) in (AlexBroom, 2009) resulting in fear of humiliation.
However the rate at which technology is advancing and exploring all the opportunities information technology has provided, it is obvious that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. The Internet and other related technologies have change the way businesses operate and people work and how information systems support businesses, processes, decision making and competitive advantage (Bimal, 2011). With the introduction of the computer System and information System, most of the activities we carry out today can be automated therefore, the process of registration of patient cannot be an exception.
As a result of the problems enumerated above, a hospital management system that incorporate biometric facilities for capturing and identification of patients, an online web application where patients can log in to meet the doctor and get remedial treatment for some critical ailment before going physically to the doctor will be developed to address the problems above. With this system in place, the records of patients can easily be retrieved using their biometrics even if the patient cannot remember his/her hospital number. Also patients can also get solution for common ailments online without passing through stress to see the doctor. Most importantly, this will reduce the death rate of patient.