Program: South Africa Summer 2013
HealthCareThatCares (HCTC) is a health informatics service dedicated to improving the process of capturing and handling patient records, by the introduction of electronic records.
HealthCareThatCares (HCTC) is a health informatics service dedicated to improving the process of capturing and handling patient records, by the introduction of electronic records. It is a software solution for appointment scheduling, patient data management, and other administrative tasks surrounding health care. These electronic forms will be a representation of all a patient’s data that would originally be found in the paper-based record. The system is designed to capture and represent data that accurately represents the state of the patient at all times. HCTC will provide an electronic patient record system with a patient record database shared among facilities. The digitising of these forms and this data allows for the standardization of forms, terminology and abbreviations and data input, helping with communication among providers and easy, effective practice-to-practice referrals.
Below is a non-exhaustive list of the benefits of HCTC:
- Improving efficiency, completeness, accuracy of documentation and reporting
- Reduces the chances of data replication as there is only one modifiable file, which means the file is constantly up to date when viewed at a later date
- Eliminates the issue of lost forms or paperwork
- Significant reduction of storage space and search time
- When paper based records are required in multiple locations, copying faxing and transporting costs are significant compared to the accessing of these digital records from any location
- Since information is stored in one single patient file, it is much more effective to extract medical data for the examination of possible trends and changes in the patients’ health. Allowing for an improved medical practice
- Data from an electronic system can be used anonymously for statistical reporting in matters such as quality improvement, resource management and communicable disease surveillance
- Improves health care coordination
- Engages patients and their families in their health care
- Paper based record systems give room for poor legibility, thus contributing to potential medical errors
