HOMIS: Revolutionizing Health Care Delivery

Try asking people in the wards and hallways what ground-breaking innovations they hope to see in health care delivery during the next years, and they might first think about miraculous medical discoveries such as the cure for cancer.  On the other side, medical practitioners and healthcare leaders have less to do with medical advances and more to do with improving how health care is accessed, and provided to all and not just a mere privilege to those who are privileged. This makes sense. While medical science has advanced at rapid speed over the last decades, the cost of health care has spun out of control, the level of quality remained poor and inconsistent, and more importantly, the patient experience is in need of repair. In other words, it’s how care is delivered that really needs a mammoth dose of innovation.

Indeed, the time has come to put the medical clipboard out of business and replace it with the computer. Yes, information technology is a pivotal part of transforming our health care system. Healthcare has been one of the few industries, which is about two decades behind in terms of innovative information systems to improve quality and patient safety.

While manual record abstraction and data entry have been standard practice for collecting clinical information, the use of electronic health records and electronic data processing methods have been suggested as more efficient mechanisms for conducting research, quality assurance, and providing quality care and safety. This is supported by myriad of case studies and research suggesting that electronic health records systems show the capability and promise to increase the quality of care and reduce health care related costs.

Hospital Operations and Management Information System (HOMIS) is a Windows based computerized hospital information system for government hospitals which encompasses the patient’s medical records. It is a public health information system that puts standard operating procedures in place that will systematically collect process, generate and share data/information to facilitate and improve patient delivery services. This is one the best practices our hospital has to offer, for it represents a quantum leap forward in legibility and the ability to rapidly retrieve information. Through it, it is much easier to retrieve and track patient data using patient registries than to use labor intensive paper chart reviews.

How many times have we opened a steel chart, only to have loose lab results fall out? In the same way, did we re-order a test because the results are missing? This innovation our hospital has allowed easy navigation through the entire laboratory results of a patient. Instead of pulling a chart to search for a lab result, it is simply a matter of a few mouse clicks. In addition, the record is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

In conclusion, MIS HOMIS Laboratory Information System LINK, allowed us practitioners to make patient information available to anyone who needs it, when they need it and where they need it. With an electronic health record, lab results can be retrieved much more rapidly, thus saving time and money.

Stacey Denise Alzate, 27

Department of Internal Medicine

Medical Officer III