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MALAYSIAN SOLUTION FOR BEIJING HOSPITAL
The Star, In.Tech, March 28, 2006
THE Plastic Surgery Hospital in Beijing is the oldest cosmetic surgery hospital in China.
Founded in 1957, it conducts more than 20,000 cosmetic correction surgeries annually.
With the hospital’s vast experience, it is surprising to find that until recently it had relied on manual methods to retrieve and analyse data.
“We had been doing data analysis by paper. The staff collected the data analysed it using traditional tools like calculators. “So the data was not very accurate and the analysis process was slow,” says Wang Ping, chief information officer at the hospital.
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The Beijing Plastic Surgery Hospital. |
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According to her, the old system did not actually provide any functions or features for the hospital’s management team to analyse data.
“From the old system we were actually not able to get any information like what is the cost to run the hospital or what revenue we obtained from it,” she adds.
The old system, from a Chinese vendor, had been in use since 2001 and was not a total information system.
The hospital needed a total solution with features like messaging, checklist and task list.
This would encode the hospital’s operational procedures into simple and quick actions while providing a network-wide messaging mechanism to facilitate data exchange as well as reduce “paper shuffling” among staff.
Malaysian solution
In January the hospital opted to go with a solution from Malaysian IT company Kompakar Inc Bhd called eTHIS (Total Hospital Information System).
The eTHIS solution is currently being implemented and the hospital hopes it will go live by year end.
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| Wang: 'Using the new system can help the hospital improve the quality of service.' |
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“It will be a complete solution which includes EMR, a lab component, picture archiving, communications system and workstations for doctors."
Wang hopes that the new system will help the hospital develop good practices and new ideas.
One new idea the hospital hopes to adopt is the Outpatient Deposit system.
Previously, patients had to queue up, pay for registration, see the doctor, pay for consultation, get the medication and pay again for the entire treatment.
This caused some concern for the hospital as patients could just leave after treatment without paying.
With the Outpatient Deposit system, patients can pay a deposit using a smartcard (much like an ATM card) and payment is then deducted as services are provided.
This cuts down the unnecessary queuing as well as the number of payment counters.
Speedier treatment
Wang believes that after the system goes live it will help the hospital reduce the waiting time for patients and in turn give them more time with doctors.
“This point is very important for patients. Using the new system can help the hospital improve the quality of service and this will save time, help the hospital reduce cost and increase revenue.
“The second point is that the system actually provides a lot of data and information for the management team.
“After we get the data and analyse it, we will be able to improve the quality of service.”
This includes the analysis of outpatient and inpatient data, what drugs are prescribed more commonly than others, which speciality operations are providing the most revenue, how many beds are utilised and trends in terms of the number of patients treated.
Other requirements
While the Beijing government does not require the hospital to provide sensitive data for its database, there are other requirements such as the submission of information for the government insurance.
However, Wang assures that this private data will not be published or shared and that the Plastic Surgery Hospital is mindful of protecting its patients’ information.
It is hoped that the solution will help improve research and teaching as well.
Says Wang: “We can get information on which are the most popular areas of surgeries or what the range of patient ages is.
“After we get the accurate statistics, the senior doctors can share the information with the junior staff.”
Wang knows that there will probably be bumps along the total hospital information system road. However, she is confident that all problems can be solved.
She puts it aptly, “In China, we often say we can get more solutions than problems.”
Fast facts
SINCE 2001, 11 research programmes of national or ministerial level have been completed at the Plastic Surgery Hospital in Beijing.
More than 40 research papers by the hospital are published in core journals annually.
In recent years, the hospital has hosted a total of nine international academic meetings with more than 5,000 participants.
It has also seen visits from more than 200 groups consisting of 2,000 foreign plastic and aesthetic surgeons.
Copyright Star Publications (M) Bhd
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