A Scalable Health Information System with Appointments Scheduling Facility (A Case Study of National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS)).

Abstract

Waiting time problem, especially for out-patients, is an exceptionally serious issue in public hospitals across the globe. This study observes that with a system that allows subscribers of NHIS to seek medical attention in any NHIS designated hospitals, the waiting time problem will be a major challenge. A perusal of the literature shows that this problem stems substantially from the practice of fixing patients appointments without regard to specific time periods a patient is likely to receive attention on the designated day. The problem is further exacerbated by the practice of fixing such appointments without recourse to the number of doctors who will be available and in some cases, the time to be spent at some facilities. To address this problem, this study modelled an appointment scheduling system that took into consideration the number of doctors, the number of patients and the likely time it will take to complete consultations and the time it will take to complete some procedures or checks at available facility, in some instances. The study then translated this conceptual solution into a formal design using an object-oriented analysis and design methodology. The designed solution was implemented using suitable programming and scripting languages (Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP), JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS), different software tools (MySQL DBMS, Apache Tomcat Webserver) and third party Application Programming Interfaces (API’s). The test results of the developed system vividly demonstrated the proper functioning of the desired features and functions specified.

Keywords: National Health Insurance Scheme, Integrated Information System, Out Patients Appointment Scheduling, Object Oriented Analysis and Design.