Determining Requirements for a Practice Relevant Database for the Ophthalmology Clinic at The Medical Centre

Abstract

Rising hospital operational costs concomitant with ever increasing patient demands have put a considerable strain on the health economy. Improving fragmented patient flow processes, incorporating cost effective technological innovations and further refining the processes with understanding of technology benefits are among the various methods employed to provide safe and efficient patient care. These are challenging times for hospitals in terms of managing patient expectations and with reduced capabilities of addition in physical capacity out of the box problem solving is the need of the hour. One of the key management philosophy is managing healthcare information and the favorite tool is Electronic Medical Record (EMR). The scope of the project revolved around The Medical Centre’s Ophthalmology clinic to gather practice relevant requirements with the purpose of developing a database to track the patients’ journey, thereby identifying areas of improvement in patient flow process and making it efficient. The database will help to analyze the current information flow, re-define workflow, centralize data information as well as re-organize organization structure to meet the changing needs of healthcare delivery process. Building such a database has its challenges that transcend people, process and technology. These challenges call for a customized approach to problem solving and serve as a bridge between the organization and stakeholders requirements. The database will help in organizing the patient information which can be easily accessed by Dr. Dogar and other authorized members. The information extracted from the proposed database will be useful in areas of research, practice review and analyzing the incidence of complications in comparison to peer group with similar facilities. The findings may be shared with General Medical Council in UK and Royal College of Physician and Surgeons in in Canada. The accuracy and completeness of the information contained in the database will not only benefit the medical clinic but also improve the wellness of the community of Grand Falls.