CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 HISTORY OF INFORMATION SYSTEM (HEALTH SYSTEM)
In recognition of the importance of health care delivery in returning patients to the state of health as nearly constant with their original state, quite a number of studies have been conducted for an understanding of the problems facing health care services, patients and the prospects of health care delivery in general.
Large numbers of people believe that application of computer in hospital inventory management system will bring as much profit in one area or the other. According to the oxford advance beginners dictionary by Edward Jonathan (2005) 5th edition; Inventory is the quantity
of goods available in store or a complete list of items such as goods in stock or the contents of a building. Inventory management can also be defined as the operation of continuously arranging receipt, rate of consumption, with due regard to the economy. Inventory management is an operation that controls the quantity of drugs being received and the quantity issued out in order to meet up with element change.
Dr. Hasting T. of Harvard University stated in his journal (Hospital management, 1996) that the days of inflated hospital inventory management is numbered for those who can harness the two main advantages of computer, speed and accuracy. He argued that a good number of these successes in the inventory management system are highly profitable and cost saving.
He stated that inventory management is necessary so as to prevent the danger of over stocking and under stock of drugs in the stock room. This means that we control stock in order to prevent drugs from being less or more than required. The problems of drug stocking, dispensing and reordering of drugs and the health care delivery in Nigeria have been very apparent and complex since the end of the Nigeria civil war.
The Vanguard (2005), asserted the interest of the federal government in perennial problems which patients face due to constant failure of the health sector to meet up with its demand, the federal government through the health ministry needed to seek the services of the local and foreign consultants to carry out studies with a view to find a lasting solution to the multi-dimensional problems militating against patients and the health sector. Some of their findings include; firstly, employing skilled medical personnel to tackle the complex problems facing patients, also good record keeping should be maintained to keep track of patients’ medical history so as to avoid guess work when treating patients. Also another area worth considering is the challenges that patients face before they can acquire the prescribed drugs for their health conditions, it is either the drugs are totally not available, or that the drugstore is in a stock-out condition.
Consultants also reported that all the obsolete equipment should be replaced with computerized machines, so as to meet up with the ever demanding role in which the sector is geared to play considering the fact that people’s lives rest on the hands of the staffs of this sector. Adoptions of schemes like the Computer Aided Medicare Scheme (A national health-care scheme financed by taxation. It offers help in patient care and protection, clinic administration, diagnosis of disease, surgical operations and financial accounting and analysis). Also, computerization of medical records will help the health care system in the accumulation of the important aspects of the medical know-how that would help experienced specialists to eliminate some of the problems they would face when performing their duties. The system helps in keeping accurate record of all past prescriptions and patient medical history, analysis of the adequate treatment given to patients with an appropriate prescription without delay. This process offers an opportunity of comparing old patient record with the effect of using the needed prescribed drugs. Consultants assured that with the aid of computers, skilled medical personnel, patients can expect accurate health care service delivery in a short time.
Olanrewaju O. (2006) while studying the role of effective health care delivery in Nigeria explained that although the objective of the health sector may be profit oriented, the most important objective should be to bring patients back to the state of normality.
In 2003, Jakpa G. carried out a study on effective stock taking and health care delivery, and identified that for the health sector to carry out its objective effectively, good record have to be maintained. Automation in drug inventory management saves time and budget.
According to Awaya A. (2005) in automation in the drug distribution processes, automation in the drug distribution processes is helpful to pharmacist in creating new clinical services. He ameliorated the drug inventory management system by creating a control system application; named airtima, which allows inventory functions to be faster and more efficient in real time. Artima can search the lot number and expiration of drugs in the purchase and delivery records. These functions are powerful and useful in patients’ safety and cost containment, he surveyed for inventory stored in the computer database and evaluated time required for inventory management by tabulating working records employed during past records. Inventory increase by 70% along with continuous improvement of the system will reduce the work load of pharmacists in taking stock of each section of the pharmacy department as well as in clinical units.
According to Roger and Shelly (2003) in Computers and Common Sense, computer being used increasingly by the hospital administration for such task such as maintaining inventories of drugs, surgical equipment, payroll, hospital accounting and for bed allocation, information on the condition of patients, details of test and clinical reports, will call for the use of a computer database. This combined information can be used to provide ward and patient summary reports and where a terminal has been installed for the use of ward nursing staff; the system can provide instruction and reminders concerning the care of individual patients. They added that in intensive care units, a computer can be used to monitor a patient’s condition; scanning instruments attached to the patient are linked on-line to the system so that nurses can be notified as the condition of the patient changes. The computer may print out or display a log of the patient condition, drawing attention to measurements that falls outside the critical limits set by the doctor, or the computer itself may trigger directly the necessary corrective action.
