FOR THE MEDICAL AND HEALTH SECTOR (SSP PHASE 3 – TAO YUAN PROJECT)
Background
Currently, not all private medical practitioners (PMPs) are using clinical management software in managing the daily clinical operations. These applications are inflexible and cause compatibility issues. It is time consuming and costly to modify the software’s features to meet the user requirement since a substantial service fee has to be paid to software vendor annually.
Besides, since PMPs are using different clinical management software, the clinical operation is not standardized across the industry. In view of that, it is proposed to develop a clinic management software which will standardize and automate clinical operation and offer to PMPs at a much lower cost. The components of the software include patient indexing, clinical operation such as appointment scheduling, storage of medical records, document generation, basic accounting functions, inventory control and dispensary.
With the development of the Clinic Management System (CMS), PMPs’ efficiency will be enhanced as there will be automation and standardization of clinical operations across the industry. In addition, since the CMS is intended to be developed and offered to PMPs at a much lower cost, it is anticipated that PMPs will be attracted to adopt electronic clinical management/electronic health records. The development of CMS can also be viewed as a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools to boost customers satisfaction.
Project Objectives
The new system CMS 3.0 will provide a foundation for an electronic health record system that will be built in the foreseeable future. It will also satisfy any immediate requirements for a simple clinic management system that avoids repetitive paper works within a private clinic. The key areas of focus for this system include:
(a) Patient Indexing
(b) Patient registration
(c) Waiting list management
(d) Medical records
(e) Inventory and Dispensary management
(f) Basic accounting functions
(g) Reporting functions
(h) Public / Private Interface
(i) Common Data Structure for diagnosis
(j) Sophisticated security measures
(k) Data backup and recovery
To allow flexible usage, CMS 3.0 will be Client-Server based (Run locally inside clinic) and support multiple concurrent stations for group practice. As such, CMS 3.0 supporting group practice should allow the individual stations to share a central common database within the group. These include patients’ records, central dispensary information and the basic accounting records. For any kinds of software, it is important that users will know how to use it. To address such concern, e-learning like interactive tutorial will be included in the project. If possible, CMS 3.0 will be developed with the ability to integrate with scheduling/appointment system with reminder for subsequent visits, manage lab reports and hospital reports as well as the printing of full medical records
The project also includes a study in twenty selected clinics for the PMPs to experience the software. A user satisfaction survey will be conducted to evaluate the performance of the software and benefits of the project. The pilot process and result will be disseminated to HKMA members and the public.
CMS 3.0 is expected to be a solution that is:
(a) An open source system, so that any interested parties can provide maintenance service and/or introduce enhancement in future without locking the development.
(b) A java application to provide cross platform functionality (i.e. Windows, Linux and Mac).
(c) Using the data standard most commonly used in Hong Kong or according to the recommendations from the e-Health Consortium.
(d) Retrieval and storage of lab reports from private laboratories online.
(e) To pave way for data communication with the Electronic Patient Record (ePR) of the Hospital Authority or statutory medical warehouse and the Communicable Diseases Information Systems (CDIS) in near future.
(f) Client-Server based (can run locally inside the clinic).
(g) With the e-learning tool kit developed for self pace learning the usage of the software.
(h) Unicode compatible with display of Chinese characters and provision of Chinese character input.
Role of different parties
The Information and Software Industry Association (ISIA) takes the role as ICT Advisor to supervise the milestone in development and would help to review the technical aspects, while Hong Kong Medical Association (HKMA) takes the role as Industry Body to monitor and accept the development of the project for private medical practitioners (PMP). The Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) offers a sponsorship for the project team to implement the project.
Mr. Aldous NG, the chairman of the ISIA (ICT Advisor) and Dr. TSE Hung Hing, the President of HKMA (Industry Body), signed the contract with Ms. Clifford TSE, the Director of Mobigator, (Project Developer) in the evening of July 28, 2008 at the HKMA Wanchai
