Health department working hard to digitise patient records

Wagner said the objectives of phase one included implementation of the HMS² modules for improved patient administration

Currently the focus is on hospitals and we integrate with the SA HPRS system that is used at clinic level

The health department is on a drive to digitilise its patients’ records through a web-based electronic health software solution known as HMS², in a bid to improve patient safety and experience in hospitals, while saving the department money.

In the past, some hospitals across the province have made headlines for patients’ files that go missing.

In 2011, a St Elizabeth Hospital nurse was arrested for allegedly stealing patient records following suspicions she was part of a scam which encouraged patients to take legal action for various reasons against the department.

But in an interview with the Dispatch this week, the department’s head, Dr Rolene Wagner, said they were building “a virtual hospital”, which would also save them money as the department owned the source code of the project.

Wagner said the objectives of phase one included implementation of the HMS² modules for improved patient administration and revenue management.

Included is an electronic liability register for medicolegal claims, management of Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) requests and an electronic employee verification module.

Among its purposes are to carry out electronic registrations of patients who visit the healthcare facility, to establish a single patient medical record that can be shared across health facilities and reduced patient waiting times.

There will be a central register of outpatient visits to the hospital, electronic patient admissions, transfers and separations, and electronic revenue management and improved revenue collection.

“Ultimately we want to replace all the physical registers,” Wagner said.

“The foundation of this is building capable teams, having effective leadership in place, having an engaged and inspired work force, institutionalising reporting performance management and developing business intelligence.

“We now have patients coming in and being registered on the system, and it is being stored in the cloud in a master patient index.

“If you were to go to any of those facilities, [the hospital] already has access to [the patients’] records.

“Therefore it decreases the time needed to go and find a physical file and ask you again the same information,” Wagner explained.

The project has been in the making since 2013 when its design and development started at Frere Hospital, with the roll-out starting in 2021.

Some hospitals across the province have received the HMS², while there is a R200m investment to overhaul information and communications technology to targeted facilities.

“Currently the focus is on hospitals and we integrate with the SA HPRS system that is used at clinic level.

“There has, however, been a request to the ehealth steering committee to conduct a pilot of HMS² within the Nelson Mandela Metro to use it in clinics to supplement HPRS.

“The need is there, but the detail will only become available after the pilot conducted in the first quarter of 2023/2024.

“If the pilot is successful, a proposal will then be submitted via the ehealth to the HOD for rollout in clinics also.

“We are also busy with a pilot in EMS to roll out the system patient administration and revenue modules across the province.

“The pilot has already started and will be concluded by endmarch, after which a formal proposal will be submitted to the HOD.

“Phase two of the project, which is yet to be implemented save for Frere Hospital, will focus on the clinical record component.

“If a patient, for instance in Nelson Mandela Bay, comes to Livingstone Hospital they access it and they say ‘Rolene needs to go to a psychiatric hospital’, then a doctor can do the referral on the computer.

“At that hospital they see the referral and pull it out and don’t have to ask you again.

“Once you input the data, it’s on the system and it feeds into the different reports that we generate so it decreases the administration of the clinical team ... “It reduces human error and gives time to nurses to focus on the patients rather than on administration.”

About five million patients have been registered on HMS² to date.

“When both phase one and two are rolled out, you can have a clinician doing an online consultation ...

“Everyone is involved in the system and facilitates interactions.

“When you refer one patient from a primary healthcare clinic to a regional or tertiary institution, we won’t have to duplicate tests, which reduces billing.”

St Elizabeth in Lusikisiki went live on Thursday. Other hospitals that have the system are Frontier, Madzikane Kazulu, Nelson Mandela Academic, Mthatha Regional and Settlers.