Implementation & Utilization of Information

Technology At Different Stages of Hospital

Development
 Operational Challenges Faced by Hospitals
The main operational challenges faced by hospitals can be broadly categorized as:
Current Healthcare Requirements
• The current healthcare environment has made it critically important that hospital costs
and quality be managed in an integrated fashion
• Healthcare reforms are expected to make most reduction and quality enhancement
more important
• Hospital processes should be more patient-centric to give more patient satisfaction
• Healthcare processes should be receptive to adopting cutting edge technology
• Public and private partnership for setting up Super-specialty hospitals
• Ambulances fitted with GPS and Mobile App to improve emergency care and reduce
mortality rate
• Post treatment Patient feedback to improve the quality of care at hospitals
• Provision of Turn-around-time reports to improve long waits before or between
appointments, movement of patients for different procedures etc.
How Can Information Technology Help?
• Information Technology is not just a tool – it is an enabler to achieve the
business goals
• Information technology has the potential to give doctors and providers of
medical care a much more complete picture of the patient in front of them, and
patients a much easier way to access their complete medical history
• 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's operation such as:
• Medical
• Administrative
• Financial, and
• Legal issues and the corresponding processing of services.
Uses of HIS
• The HIS is basically the core transactional system of the
hospital. It is often the:
• main point of data entry for almost all hospital transactions,
including patient registration, admissions, and order charges.
• main database and storage facility for all transactions
• main source of census and reports for hospital management,
including patient counts, admission numbers and financial
reports.
• The most commonly-available modules in an HIS give a
hint of the wide coverage of transactions handled by the
system.
Advantages and Benefits of HIS
• There are several benefits of using an IT system to streamline hospital
operations.
• Data is entered at the source. No more paper slips passed around and
handed to an encoder.
• Quick access and retrieval to patient information and hospital transactions.
• Easy monitoring of supplies, inventory and medicines.
• Reduces documentation needs and minimizes use of paper.
• Improves turn-around time for hospital procedures dependent on paper-
based slips and logbooks.
• Better audit controls and policy compliance.
What Do Hospitals Expect Out of HIS?
Hospitals need maximum ROI while investing in a HIS.
Any ideal Hospital Information Solution is expected to give:
• Patient Centric Controls
• Seamless Data Integration
• Unlimited User Licenses
• Highly Secured Inventory Control
• Automated Procurement
• Re-usability of Consumables and Disposables using ETO Sterilization
• Mobile Device Integration
• Subcontracting Linen and Laundry management
• Pay-as-you-use Stock Management
Case Study on ROI
A Live Case Study on a big hospital in Kolkata showed that after implementing HIS:
• Software was deployed in no time and total software support was made available to
tweak the software as required and generate reports that the management needed to
improve the operations
• Architecture was very helpful when such operational changes were needed and data
analytics were made easy
• The work flow and the patient flow were monitored closely on daily basis and capacities
were enhanced wherever things choked the system
• A consultant was able to see three times the number of outpatients he was seeing every
day resulting in a 60% growth in revenues year after year from 2010 to 2015
• Average Length of Stay of in patients was kept constant and the inpatients were taken
care of to get an early discharge; their accounts were made available instantaneously
• The information on how much could be claimed from the policy of insured and how much
Third Party Agents of Insurance Companies will be settled was made available to the
insurance desk and the patient as and when required
Case Study on ROI (contd.)
• The control of consumables issue was meticulous. Issues to the patients were
strictly based on case requirements.
• The medicines and catheters with expiration dates were monitored carefully to
replenish with expiry date alerts with new stocks.
• A special procedure was introduced to re – sterilize consumables and re use
them.
• Laundry operations were carried out with the required consumables only to
avoid wastage.
• Supply Chain Systems were reinforced to reduce the inventory.
• Operating Theatre Systems threw up a list of activities to be performed with a
clock work /precision;
• Tools required for next day’s operations were lined up for sterilization in
autoclaves and moved to the relevant Operation Theatre with patients’ name
properly displayed.
Case Study on ROI (Figures)
2014-15 2013-14 2012- 13 2011-12 2010-11 2009- 2010

Revenue from
operations
Domestic Turnover 719454 657918 633887 537990 459803 366207

(II) Other income 24139 17464 14212 9223 6779 3384

(III) Total Revenue (I+II) 743593 675382 648099 547213 466582 369591

(IV) Expenses
516280 479824 456131 355134 294347 237199
Profits 93609 71681 72052 91663 78076 62876
Turn-Around-Time (TAT) Reports
Hospitals need to measure the Turn-Around-Time in the areas of every department.
HIS applications must cater to many such TAT Reports.
For example, a Laboratory TAT would consist of:
HIS Interfaces
To have a typical paperless management in any Hospital, the HIS should have
multiple interfaces. Interfaces act as the keys to many doors :
Government Schemes
In India, any HIS should be capable of integrating various Government Schemes for
billing – especially in large hospitals.
Integrated Billing Management
Billing Management is perhaps the most vital part of any Hospital, and an
important requirement in any HIS.
The Billing Management should typically take care of the following:
Disadvantages of Healthcare Informatics
While advantages are many, the problems Hospitals face with HIS are:
Some Challenges Faced During HIS Implementation
• Cloud vs Client Server • Standardization of Drugs
Technologies • Multiplicity of Treatment
• Data Security Methodologies
• Absence of Past Data • Norms for Procedures
• Physical Work Flow • Vendor Managed Inventories
• Staff Training • Absence of strong Inventory
Control

• Skill Matrix of Nursing Staff • Need for customer handholding

• Discharge Delays due to billing • Multiplicity of Insurance
• Anywhere Approvals • Transparency of Unclaimable
• Analytics Claims
The Way Forward
With the emerging trends in technology, Healthcare and Information
Technology must go hand-in-hand.
• Patients need excellent personalized healthcare at the most
affordable cost with the shortest turn around.
• Health payers want to provide excellent care in the most cost
effective way.
• Physicians and healthcare providers want to provide excellent
healthcare and be fairly compensated for their services.
• The key is how to measure quality and how to measure outcome.
Healthcare Informatics provides the answers to all such concerns.
How Will Healthcare Informatics Help?
• Empowering Patients with more robust and easily accessible Patient
Portals where:
• they can access their EHRs, and
• input data readable and measurable by the EHR

• Empowering Physicians with applications scalable on Mobile devices

where:
• they can easily access Patient data, and
• prescribe medicines and treatments to patients on the go

• Empowering Healthcare providers by ensuring they give cost-effective

treatment to the patients
• Implementing Voice Recognition Technology, Data Analytics, and Clinical
Decision Making tools so that:
• Healthcare Providers improve the quality of Patient Care in the most cost effective way
• Patients receive quality care by paying less
• Healthcare Payers pay Healthcare Providers based on outcome rather than complexity
of the medical problem
Thank You