Smart HMS® is an integrated hospital information management system that automates transactions in a health facility on a patients’ visit basis and daily procedures. Smart HMS is a software system which allows the medical personnel to type notes directly into a computer rather than writing them on paper.
All patient’s medical records are kept in a database with a unique patient identifier. This allows the healthcare providers to have a comprehensive medical file for quick review, with the medical history, medications, diagnosis, prescriptions and dosages, laboratory test results, all readily available electronically in the system.
Smart HMS enables healthcare workers to manage patient’s bio data, record patient vital signs, record laboratory tests and results, record patient diagnosis information, record patients’ prescriptions and dosage information, record a patient’s maternity information, record antenatal visits and pregnancy progress examination reports, record birth reports and death reports, manage pharmacy information & drug inventory, export data to microsoft excel, generate all required reports on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.
The healthcare sector in Uganda has lagged behind in the transition from paper based information management to digital information management, yet it’s an area, where there is too much data being collected from different sources and that data has to be analyzed and rich reports generated within the shortest time possible.
Typically, when one goes to a healthcare facility a paper file is opened and data about a patient is handwritten onto pieces of paper, not always legible, and then stored in a cabinet.
The process is repeated each time a patient returns to the health facility for treatment. It is extremely difficult to make good use of such unstructured data stored in this manner, and extracting value from it. A simple query such as number of female children suffering from malaria seen in a given year would take several days and the accuracy of the information is not always guaranteed.
In healthcare, we need a solution where health facilities manage all their patients’ data electronically rather than rely on paper. All patients’ medical data will be stored in a single secure database, organized in a way that medical personnel can easily view a specific patient’s medical data and also the facility administrators and stake holders will be able to mine this database for value such as through real-time reports generated by the system.
The software system has an easy and simple interface meant for non IT professionals to use. This is because it was developed from scratch and not as software customized to manage clinical data. It has a comprehensive search engine that any basic user can use to make reports, a task that is usually reserved for IT professionals in most organizations.
