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Kishore Shinde
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Hospitals today are preparing to improve quality of care, manage cost, while adhering to mandated requirements. To achieve this, processes need to be benchmarked, they have to adhere to certain standards. HMS(Hospital Management Systems) software can help hospitals to automate processes and give consistent output by following the unique processes, irrespective of you does it.
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Objective of compliance
- Helps in improving patient care
- Helps in streamlining operations
- Improvement of overall organisational performance
- Provide staff education on better or best practices
- Increase efficiency and reduce cost
- Strengthen patient confidence
For the topic of today’s discussion say NABH (National Accreditation Board For Hospitals And Healthcare Providers). NABH is a constituent board of Quality Council of India, set up to establish and operate accreditation programme for healthcare organisations to achieve compliance.
NABH has 10 Chapters. First fivechapters are patient related while the other five chapters are healthcare organisation related.
Let us see how HMS covers AAC in detail.
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Access, Assessment and Continuity of Care (AAC)
- Functionalities covered in HMS:
- Registration, admission, transfer, patient assessment, discharge, access records.
- Some of the highlighting features in HMS :
- Unique patient identification number
- Patient transfer record between departments/ units
- Patient assessment (record temperature, pulse, height, weight, BP)
- Discharge summary (It covers complete stay record along date of admission, date of discharge, investigation results, diet, special precautions, treatment advise, treatment given, condition at discharge, follow up date- auto appointment can take place)
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Following are the screens from HMS for reference:
Screen 1: Admission/ Registration screen: It has unique registration number (P13-03296) for every patient. Consent can be selected, Medico Legal Case (MLC) details, provisional diagnosis can be entered
Screen 2: Patient transfer: It has transfer details like date and time of transfer, current and transfer to bed details.
Screen 3 : Vitals: Patient regular assessment entry can be done from this screen. It covers examination date and time, vital parameters like pulse, BP, temperature, weight.
Continuous monitoring/ assessment, regular data updation and following defined processes will give relevant and accurate data. It will give alerts to concerned person, will help in proper diagnosis which will ensure patient safety and continuity of care.
Below is just an overview of remaining chapters:
Care of Patients (COP) – Regular patient Monitoring, periodic re-assessment, pre and post operative plans, informed consent, anesthesia monitoring, equipment check and sterilisation, diet plan.
Management of Medication (MOM) – Allergy alerts and symptoms management associated with patient case sheet, availability of emergency drugs, check of expiry dates, medications with clear instruction, legible date, time, name and signature.
Patient Rights and Education (PRE) – Information about disease and possible outcome made clear to patient and his family, consents are bi-lingual, cost estimation is given, patient can view online reports – Secured patient portal, can view case records, treatment advise, special precautions, diet advise. patient complaints and feedback is taken.
Hospital Infection Control (HIC) – Facility Management (rooms, wards and waste management), pharmacy notifications (expiry), operation theatre and equipment sterilisation.
Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) – HMS is capable of reporting ‘Key Performance Indicators’ that help to monitor the processes and outcomes which are used as tools for continual improvement.
Responsibilities of Management (ROM) – Role definitions, authentication and authorisation.
Facilities Management and Safety (FMS) – Material management, inventory/equipment management, staff management.
Human Resource Management (HRM) – Maintain employee profile, pre-employment medical examination, maintain employee training record, proper duty allocation.
Information Management System (IMS) – The aim of information management is to provide right information to right person. HMS makes sure this is achieved. The authentic, secure and accurate information is provided as per the roles and privileges assigned.
This is how HMS can help hospitals to achieve compliance by adhering to automated and defined processes.
Finally with the growing number of hospitals and patients looking for quality care, adhering to compliance and following processes will help hospitals to improve quality, improve clinical outcomes, improve individual and overall organisation performance.
Disclaimer: Few parts in this article has been referenced from NABH Website.
The author can be contacted at [email protected]
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