Patient Data Integration: A Panacea for Effective Healthcare

A huge challenge in the healthcare domain has remained the spread and proliferation of fragmented information systems and multiplicity of data that accumulate from growing quantities of heterogeneous data of patient. This challenge must be addressed as the whole domain gradually transforms into models of delivery of healthcare that is electronic and patient-centered. The presence of inadequate data integration at various levels incapacitates medical personnel from building a wholesome and total understanding of patient condition. In this paper, an integration platform called Integrated Patient Management System (IPMIS) for managing clinical and historical information for patients is incorporated. Previous systems could not undertake the problems like; delay in treatment of patients in cases of emergencies, wrong prescription of drugs due to wrong diagnosis as a result of unavailability of patients’ history, lack of health data interoperability and loss of life. Seeking solution to the above problems led to the development of an Integrated Patient Management Information System (IPMIS) that enables patient clinical data sharing, provides streamlined operations, enhances administration and control, permits superior patient care and continuity of treatment, and improved decision making for healthcare institution. This paper enhances patient’s referral, with a messaging system that alerts the hospital which the patient has been referred to and also the patient that is referred. The development of the system helps to collate patient’s data that are disparately located to a centralized data base for efficient interoperability of care. It also helps for the interoperability of multiple hospitals for effective patient management. The new system enables and provides timely patient health record information sharing where it is need and when it is needed in cases of emergencies, referrals or continuity of treatment and it is presently being used in a federal teaching hospital in Nigeria.