Hospital Information System in Medicare at Tata Steel, Jamshedpur

Introduction
Tata Main Hospital (commonly known as TMH) at Jamshedpur caters its services to the employees (around 60,000) of Tata Steel, their families, and dependent relations. It also extends its facilities to patients coming from in and around Jamshedpur and Associated & Contractor companys. TMH is a eight hundred and thirty five bedded hospital equipped with modern facilities and catering all specialties.

 Computerization at TMH has started in a limited way since 1985 when standalone systems were introduced to take care of routine local area needs the emphasis then was mainly on book-keeping activities. Since 1996, an integrated information system have been implemented in the areas of Pathology, Radiology, Medical Research, Medical Stores & Pharmacy, Inpatient Admissions & Billing.

 On-line sharing of information has made extension of the existing system to ICU and wards possible, whereby test results can be made available on-line enabling prompt remedial action by doctors. Effective systems and procedures have helped TM administration in achieving and fulfilling their quality objectives .

Objectives of the System

The short term objectives of the on-line computerized system in TMH are to reduce costs and improve the accuracy and timeliness of patient care, accounting and administration, record keeping, and management reporting. The long term objectives are to build and maintain a patient database for analysis of data to facilitate decision making process.

Scope of the System

Before computerizing the system, a comprehensive requirement analysis study was conducted by a team of TMH staff and IT staff to ascertain the various needs for computerization. Patient Care related areas were given priority in order t achieve the objectives.

 TMH has computerized the following functions:

- Admissions/Discharges/Transfers, - Pathology test result information, - Radiology test with appointment scheduling, - Special test Information system at Medical Research, - Inventory maintenance of medicines & other appliances, - Issue of medicines of patient, - Communications with external world using E-mail and web technology, - Patient billing.

Methodology Adopted
As per the ISO 9000 standards a Project team was formed for monitoring and managing the computerization project on schedule. The team comprised of Head of Departments, Key users consisting of doctors, Accountants etc, each from various functional areas along with IT personnel. General Manager (Medical Services) called sponsor set directives and reviewed project.

Business Process Re-engineering (BPR)

In order to achieve the objectives through computerization, each functional business process was studied and then questioned. Radical changes were brought about by reengineering the processes and simplifying the existing business procedures to meet the needs of computerization. A few example of re-engineered processes will be dealt with in the next presentation.

Modules of the System

Admissions/Discharges/Transfers Accounts billing Pathology Medical stores Pharmacy Radiology Medical Research Communications Future plan

Key performance indicators (KPI)

The benefits of computerization come from better management through informed decision making. The Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) showed remarkable improvements after computerization. We would be dealing with this in our next presentation.

CONCLUSION
Certainly, computers with their intrinsic power can play a major role in a hospital. Computers can act as a communication link between departments and allows the common database to be shared by them. They can perform the complex task of matching, tabulating, calculating, retrieving, printing and securing the data as required. Well designed, integrated computer system can be a great tool in the hands of the hospital management in improving services, controlling cost, and ensuring optimal utilization of facilities.

Thank You