27 March 2010
Umesh Isalkar
Pune, India
All diagnostic labs including the radiology department (seen in picture) have been fully computerised at Sassoon hospital under the project called hospital management and information system “Computerisation has changed the very dynamics of medical services. The process of carrying out investigations and initiating treatment has become phenomenally faster,” said Arun Jamkar, dean of the Sassoon hospital, on Thursday.
The Sassoon computerised its out–patient department (OPD) a few months back. Now, a patient visiting the hospital for the first time is given a unique identification number called the MRD (medical record data) number that gives doctors access to his medical history at the click of a mouse.
“We have initiated computerisation of the indoor department of the hospital. The diagnostic labs have been computerised,” said Jamkar. The labs comprising biochemistry, microbiology, pathology, histopathology, clinical haematology, radiology etc have been computerised.
Earlier, a report of a diagnostic test would take an entire day. Again, a patient had to carry the report himself to the doctor and then the doctor would give him medicine or decided further course of treatment. “Now if a doctor wants to carry out a few investigations, he sends the list of treatments to respective labs. The patient just goes there and gets the test done. The reports of all investigations are sent to the doctor in 30 minutes and the treatment begins soon after,” he added.
“The patient doesn’t need to carry the X–ray film or any other reports. The scanned copy of the X–ray film is sent to the doctor with remarks from a radiologist in just half an hour,” said Jamkar.
Computerisation of the hospital is part of the project called Hospital Management and Information System (HMIS). The project was flagged off by the state government’s Medical Education and Drugs Department (MEDD) in 2007. All the 14 government–run medical colleges and 19 affiliates will be linked though integrated software and the move should bring with it transparency.
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