OPD-PMMAS: Patient Management and mobile alert System for OPDs in Sri Lankan Hospitals-a prototype

Abstract

Unorganized crowds and queues of the people are a major issue in the public services and organizations, especially with the increased number in the population. Outdoor Patients Departments (OPDs) of the government hospitals are often observed to have uncontrolled areas of long queues of patients, especially during the peak hours of clinics and in infection seasons. Currently, there are different types of systems and simulation models experienced for the OPD system to manage the patients. The focus of our study is to develop a prototype for managing patients in OPDs to simplify the process of patient inspection, treatment and conveniently managing their time by sending alerts about the current updates of available patients. This prototype introduces the development of a patient information registration and management system for patients and hospital staff, and a Mobile application-based alert system for patients. The system was developed using JAVA and MySQL.The Mobile application-based alert system was developed in JAVA and an Android mobile device was used as the GSM Modem or SMS gateway to send SMS alerts to the specific mobile number within few minutes. The prototype was tested with users from both hospital staff and patients and produced higher user satisfaction after evaluation through demonstration and questionnaires. The proposed prototype will resolve the difficulties patients faced by minimizing the long queues and will further enhance the efficacy of the services provided to the patients by the hospital systems.