The Organisation
A multi-speciality Hospital. Primary aim is to deliver high quality health care with a personal touch. The Hospital provides diagnostic and therapeutic facilities with extreme promptness and speed which is achieved and supported by intensive use of information technology.
The hospital is equipped with a LAN with a central server room and workstation nodes spread throughout the building across several departments, labs, wards and counters.
The Problem
The daily operation of the hospital generates a lot of digital data for every patient case. A single case receives varied inputs in the form of treatment regime sheets, diagnostic reports, patient monitoring system charts and reports, invoices and bills, etc. Some of this data is in digital form and some is in print form. The hospital has adopted a policy to move maximum possible documentation into the digital format and efforts are on to implement the same. But as this shift from paper to digital document progresses, the hospital is beginning to acutely feel the need for a proper data management system which allows them quick access to patient information documents, both past and present, without overwhelming hard disk resources available on servers and workstations.
The Solution
What the hospital needs is a Secure Data Publishing System with the following features:
- Network data storage
- Online cataloging
- Offline archival to CD/DVD media
- Information search and retrieval
- Web Publishing facility
Ideally this system will work for the hospital as follows
It will receive all the data files from a digital Case History Folder of the Patient at the time of his discharge. This digital Case History Folder will be written to CD/DVD that will be handed over to the patient when he checks out. A copy of this CD/DVD will be kept in the offline archives of the Hospital. Information about the contents of the CD/DVD will remain in an online database for quick reference if and when the patient’s case is to be revisited and re-examined. There will be a facility to selectively publish case history data to a website where it can be accessed by the patient, his doctors and relatives for the purpose of quick access, study and expert second opinion.
How LANwriter helps
LANwriter is installed by the hospital on a machine near the checkout counter in the patient registration office. This machine is connected to all the ward level computers over the LAN and also has firewalled connectivity to the internet.
Once the patient is discharged, the ward manager collates all files and information from all departments and closes the digital Case History Folder of the patient.
He then starts his browser and logs in to the LANwriter system. Creates a data write job for this patient, transfers the Case History Folder to the LANwriter machine and issues the data write command remotely.
LANwriter receives the folder, catalogs the job information in the database and writes the CD/DVD which is made available to the patient by the time he reaches the check-out counter on his way out of the ward.
In future when the patient revisits the hospital, and is consulting a doctor in his room, the doctor may login to the LANwriter system from his desktop PC and search for the patients folder in the online catalog. LANwriter will return the case-history folder reference in a flash. If the folder is relatively fresh and its files have not been sent to an offline archive by the hospital, the doctor will have instant searchable access to each and every file within the patient’s case history folder. In case the folder contents have been sent to an offline DVD, for access to the actual files, the doctor may request the patient to give his copy or fetch the same from hospital archives. In either case, the speed with which the doctor is able to refer to past history of the patient is phenomenally improved.
In case the doctor wants to discuss the case with another specialist and use any of the files for reference, he may have LANwriter upload them to a webserver almost instantly. The uploaded files will become available to the collaborating specialists right across the globe.
Thus it can be seen that LANwriter is a simple and highly effective solution to improve data management, patient service and promptness of Medical assistance.
A small investment in this appropriate software takes the hospital a long way in streamlining operations and enhancing its image as an information technology driven medical institution.