ONLINE PATIENT MANAGEMENT

SYSTEM

INTRODUCTION
Recent research states that using new and emerging technologies in the areas of
telecommunications are widely used in healthcare sector. The system Online
Patient Management System (OPMS) is a centralized database contains the in-
patient record. It was implemented using JAVA & MYSQL combination. The
database record contains the patient personal info, department lies-in, physician,
tours, ,treatment and lab results. Since the patient enters the hospital the work
flow starts as the reception user creates new record by entering the personal info
and sends the record to assigned department; at this stage the nurse starts update
the record by entering the physician comments, required treatment, and sends lab
test when it is required. The procedure continues as long as the patient still in the
hospital. At last when the patient recovered or died the International
Classification of Diseases(ICD) inserted to the record and out or died date. In
addition there are many supported tables that can be updated manually through
independent pages by IT administrator. These tables like

Physician names, medicines, lab tests, users and ICDs. As the system consists of
different users and

different user permissions. Also there are advance search that can help to make
statistical reports and researches
for the physicians. The system is considered time and cost effective to healthcare.

KEYWORDS
1- Hand Written Medical Records

2- Electronic Medical Record

3- Online Portal
BACKGROUND
There were inherent problems in hand written medical records . The doctor was
required to read the whole medical record which was illegible and hand- written
and sort the data in the mind in order to understand the patient's difficulties and
how each had been analyzed. However, doctors found it hard to read the records
and understand the problems as they got lost and often ignored problems. Also,
problems were missed and treated as irrelevant. Therefore, an organized medical
record was required. The medical record was supposed to have a list of the
patient's health problems, diagnoses and unexplained findings that are not yet
clear signs of the diagnosis including abnormal symptoms and physical findings.
Additionally, the problem lust was supposed to be dynamic so as to be updated
anytime. This allowed the combination of different problems that were found to
be part of a similar diagnosis. The problem list was supposed to be separated into
active and inactive problems. As a result, the following orders, plans, numerical
data and progress notes were recorded under the numbered and titles problems

The medical records had constraints as they were criticized for not reflecting
what happened properly. The chart was disorganized, illegible, ragged and thick.
In addition, the progress notes, radiology reports, nurse's notes and consultant's
notes were all combined in succession sequence. Therefore, the charts caused
confusion instead of enlightening nurses and doctors to provide suitable care to
patients. Nurses and doctors found it challenging to understand what was
happening to the patient. The language used in the medical records was the
language developed by medicine. Therefore, nurses were required to record
patient information in a language acceptable to doctors and administrators in the
hospital.

The problem approach to organizing data in the medical records required

completeness in formulating the problem list and carefully analyzing and
following- through on every problem as stated in the titled progress notes. In this
case, physicians were required to gather correct data and draw logical and
relevant conclusions from the data. A narrative progress note was not sufficient
for relating different variables. The medical records did not contain flow sheets to
encourage understanding and interpretation of different interrelated and changing
variables. Hence, new medical records with flow sheets were required to solve
the problem .

The electronic medical record contains patient's information including health

problems, vital signs, medications administered and allergies. In addition, the
records contain reminders and alerts, health maintenance and notes. The alerts
remind the health professional the patient is allergic to certain drugs and two
drugs cannot be combined with each other. The reminders show the client is due
for health maintenance tests including mammography. Besides, the medical
record contains the patient's demographics including age, sex, gender, ethnicity,
date of birth and location. The electronic medical record shows the patient's
advance directives and visits.

The electronic medical record is well structured, unlike paper-based medical

records. Hence, health professionals are supposed to fill the patient information
based on the pre-formatted listings. They are not required to provide the
information in a narrative form, but enter the information in a precise manner
based on the acceptable codes. Electronic medical records can be used by both
physicians and nurses to record patient information about his or her condition,
treatment and diagnosis.

METHODOLOGY
The methodology which will be used during the design of the OPMS and the
analysis of system requirements will be discussed in details through this section.
The system development life cycle was divided into phases:

DATA FLOW DIAGRAMS

One of the most widely used system analysis process models is the data flow
diagram. A Data Flow Diagram (DFD) is a tool that depicts the flow of data
through a system and the work or processing performed by that system. It is used
to help understand the current system and to represent the required system. The
diagrams represent the external bodies sending and receiving information
UNSTRUCTURED INTERVIEW
It is essential to success any system is to understand its requirements. In OPMS,
we had an interview with the health care providers such as physician, nurse and
statistics department for gathering rich information about system requirements to
design and build this system

FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS (FR)

These requirements are described as set of system requirements, such as:

•Add new patient record.
•The system sends patient record to the nurse to add a new patient.
•The system enables the nurse to search about specify patient.
•Archiving patient record electronically and centrally.
•The system enables the nurse to request a specific lab test.
•The system has ability to send lab results back to nurse or physician.
•The system enables the nurse or physician to search & research.
shows one of the functional requirements of OPMS.
•The system enables the physician to check patient history by searching it
easily.
•The system enables the reception user to close the record by entering the
ICD, patient status and out/died date.

DESCRIPTION
The system must allow the reception user to create new patient record

RATIONALE
The system enables the reception user to create new patient record
which Includes the personal information of patient such as: name,
address, contact info,...etc.

NON FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS

There are many non functional requirements of the OPMS like updatable,
security, compatibility, capacity, usability and maintainability, performance with
database, for example the system interactive with database immediately as under
a second, database searches, updates and retrieval the change to patient
information must be fast
Users Analysis
Five users were identified in EPRMS who are: physician, nurse, lab user,
reception user and admin.

User: Nurse

Role:
1- The nurse will access the system and update the morning and evening
tours for the inpatients according to physician comments.
2- The nurse can send lab test request to Lab department.
3- The nurse can update the given pharmaceutics that given to each patient.

RESULTS
Partial of the results which produced during the OPMS will be showed:

1-After the log in for the Administrator (IT or hospital manager), they can view
the current in-patients (Statistical No., Name, Department, Hall, ICD )and can
browse their used medicine and their physician comments or lab results.
2-The nurse has the major role in the system, she can follow up the patient
treatment and status and update it in DB as long as the patient in hospital
3-The lab user can return the result of the required test
4-The hospital manger,physician and researchers can use the advance search to
view the report which they need

CONCLUSION
In conclusion, medical records have evolved in the past four decades due to the
need to present patient information in an accurate, complete and eligible way.
Hospitals have moved from using paper-based medical records to using
electronic medical records as they are eligible, complete, timely and accurate.
The electronic medical records improve patient care including safety and
efficiency of care. In addition, nurses, physicians, consultants and other health
professionals utilize electronic medical records to record patient information.
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