Electronic hospital database with SMS capability for queuing and information

• Main Authors: Anonuevo, Roberto Raul, Dela Torre, Mark Leslee, Sabater, Adrian Albert
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2009
• Subjects: Medical appointments and schedules; Physician services utilization; Physicians > Time management
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/8322
• Institution: De La Salle University

For most high-volume medical service facilities, the implementation of an efficient queuing and scheduling system would always pose a problem. More often than not, medical service facilities would implement a queue manually by either assigning a queue administrator or by using a ticketing system. The problem with these implementations is that the manager or facilitator of the queue does not have a convenient and quick way of informing queued customers of any updates. Because of this, patients are given no indication or estimation as to when their turn will be. As such, patients who are waiting in line will be forced to wait in the same vicinity as the facility. Which in turn, would lead to long and crowded queues in that particular facility. Another problem that most Philippine medical service facilities have is implementing a reliable, robust and efficient record keeping system. In the Philippine setting, most service facilities still choose to use a paper-based system for keeping medical records. This system has already proved to be slow and inefficient. In a recent survey conducted by the group, 63% of its respondents have admitted to having problems with their record keeping system. 83% of these respondents have also admitted to misplacing patient medical records or losing them entirely. These are unacceptable numbers, especially for a medical service facility. Lastly, another thing that doctors have to contend with are forgotten appointments. In the same survey conducted by the group, 44% of doctors say that in a month, more than 15 would-be patients forget their scheduled appointments. Out of these doctors, 75% of them say that they do not employ any sort of reminder system whatsoever. To address these problems, the proponents of this study, proposes to implement a fully electronic queuing and appointment reminder system that will be integrated into an electronic record keeping system wherein queued patients will be automatically sent updates regarding their current queue position. With regards to the appointment reminders, the system will automatically send reminders who have appointments the following day.