Designing and evaluating functional laboratory information system requirements integrated to hospital information systems

Impact of the Implementation of Laboratory Information System (WWDISA) on Timely Provision of HIV-1 Viral Load Results in a Rural Area, Inhambane, Mozambique

WWDISA is an optional module of the DISA Laboratory Information system (LIS) that offers a web portal that allows access to test results over the internet for patient clinical management. This study aims to assess the applicability of using the WWDISA web application, and the lessons learned from its implementation in six health facilities in Mabote district, Inhambane province. Data from 2463 and 665 samples for HIV-viral load (HIVVL) tests, extracted from paper-based and WWDISA systems, respectively, were included, from January to December 2020. Data were simultaneously collected on a quarterly basis from both systems to allow comparison. The WWDISA turnaround time (TAT) from sample collection to results becoming available was found to be 10 (IQR: 8−12) days and significantly lower than the health unit manual logbook (p value < 0.001). Regarding the system efficiency, it was found that among 1978 search results, only 642 (32.5%) were found, and the main challenges according to the users were lack of connectivity (77%) and the website going down (62%). The WWDISA module has been shown to be effective in reducing the TAT, although a stable internet connection and accurate data entry are essential to make the system functional.

Investigating the satisfaction level of physicians in regards to implementing medical Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS)

Background

User satisfaction with PACS is considered as one of the important criteria for assessing success in using PACS. The objective of this study was to determine the level of user satisfaction with PACS and to compare its functional features with traditional film-based systems.

Methods

This study was conducted in 2017. Residents at three large university hospitals in Kerman filled-out a self-administered questionnaire consisting of three parts: demographic information of participants, user satisfaction with PACS, comparing features of the two digital and traditional imaging systems. The validity of this questionnaire was approved by five medical informatics, radiology, and health information management specialists and its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach’s alpha (86%). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the Spearman, Mann Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis statistical tests.

Results

The mean of the participants’ ages was 31.4 (±4.4) years and 59% of the participants were females. The mean of physicians’ satisfaction with PACS’ had no significant relationship with their age (P = 0.611), experience of using PACS (P = 0.301), specialty (P = 0.093), and percent of interpretation of images with PACS (P = 0.762). It had a significant relationship with the participants’ computer skills (P = 0.022).

Conclusions

The mean of physicians’ satisfaction with PACS was at a moderate to a high level, yet there are still problems in the successful implementation of these systems and establishing interoperability between them. PACS has not fully met all the demands of physicians and has not achieved its predetermined objectives, such as all-access from different locations.

Technical requirements framework of hospital information systems: design and evaluation

BACKGROUND

Implementing the health information system (HIS) is more complex and costly than implementing other information systems. The present study was conducted to design and evaluate technical requirements for the HIS.

METHODS

The present study was conducted in 2016 by determining technical requirements for the HIS using the Delphi technique and then evaluating this system using a checklist based on the approved requirements.

RESULTS

The first part of the study designed a 73-item final list of technical requirements for the HIS in four domains, i.e. communication service, system architecture, security service and system response time. The evaluation results obtained in the second part showed that communication service was met in 63.8% of the HIS programs, system architecture in 65.5%, security service in 72.4% and system response time in 76.3%.

CONCLUSIONS

A technical evaluation tool was designed and used to select and evaluate the HIS. The evaluation results suggested the study HIS was poorer in terms of communication service and system architecture than in the other two dimensions.