DEVELOPMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR THE REFERRAL SYSTEM OF PRIMARY CARE UNITS IN KHON KAEN PROVINCE
Keywords:
Information technology, Referral system, Primary care units, SatisfactionAbstract
This study was a research and development study aiming for development of information technology for the referral system of primary care units in Khon Kaen Province. The study was conducted in January-December 2021. There were 6 steps in the development of the prototype; 1. Gathering initial requests and analysing the problem; 2. Designing the system; 3. Testing the initial prototype; 4. Analysing more requests; 5. Applying the ready-to-use prototype for implementation; and 6. Maintenance. A prototype for a referral system was then designed and was implemented for trial in 17 health-promoting hospitals. It was improved and implemented in 248 health-promoting hospitals. There was then a post-use random satisfaction assessment of the sample group of 124 people. The qualitative data were analyzed by content analysis. The quantitative data analysis comprises percent, means, standard deviation, and t-test.
The results of the study showed that the information technology for the primary care units referral system was web applications connected to a server which containing referral data. The referral data was structured according to the 43 files standard data set, related to referral data of 10 files. The referral data was input to the Health Information System (HIS). The data was transacted from the health-promoting hospitals to Khon Kaen provincial health office server by replication. After the processing, the information would be shown to the main contractor hospital. The referral data was able to be used promptly in real-time. The web applications displayed format was responsive and showed significant referral data. Users could able to access individual patient data by logging in with a username and password. The assessment then a post-use satisfaction overall was at a high level. Comparing satisfaction of users in health-promoting hospitals type PCU and type NPCU found no significant difference. (p-value =0.120)
Downloads
References
World Health Organization. Global strategy on digital health 2020-2025. Geneva; 2021.
Columbus ML. The Evaluation and Effectiveness of an Interdisciplinary Course in Electronic Health Record (EHR) Technology for Health and Rehabilitation Professionals. Pennsylvania: University of Pittsburgh; 2002.
Gandhi TK, Sittig DF, Franklin M, Sussman AJ , Fairchild DG, Bates DW. Communication breakdown in the outpatient referral process. J Gen Intern Med 2000; 15(4): 626-631.
World Health Organization. Management of Health Facilities: Referral Systems. Geneva; 2014.
Mekthon S. Guidelines for Primary Care Cluster. Nonthaburi: The Agricultural Cooperative Association of Thailand; 2012. [in Thai].
Khon Kaen Provincial Public Health Office. Summary report of supervisory evaluation on Khon Kaen Public Health service networking. Khon Kaen: Klangnanatham; 2019. [in Thai].
Forrest CB, Glade GB, Baker AE, Bocian A, Schrader von S, Starfield B. Coordination of specialty referrals and physician satisfaction with referral care. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 2000; 154(5): 499-506.
Wager KA, Wickham Lee F, Glaser JP. Managing Healthcare Information Systems - A Practical Approach for Health Care Executives. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass; 2005.
Larman C, Basili VR. Iterative and incremental developments: a brief history. Computer 36(6): 47-56; 2003.
Best John W. Research is Education. (3rd ed). Englewod cliffs: N.J. Prentice-Hall; 1977.
Omar A. M-Blocks (Medical Blocks): A Blockchain Based Approach for Patient Record Management Using IBM Hyperledger. Information Technology Trends (ITT) 2019; 23(4): 24-31.
Dagher GG, Mohler J, Milojkovic M, Marella PB. Ancile: Privacy-Preserving Framework for Access Control and Interoperability of Electronic Health Records Using Blockchain Technology. Sustainable Cities and Society 2018; 39(2): 283–297.
Warren J. OpenHIE Interoperability Layer Design. Information Security and Collaboration National Conference. USA; 2014.
Wang M. Personal Health Information Management System and its Application in Referral Management. IEEE Transaction on Information Technology in Biomedicine 2004; 8(3): 287-296.
Webtise. Mobile & Responsive Web Design and Development interaction. Pearson Education; 2013.
Growth A, Haslwanter D. Perceived usability, attractive and intuitiveness of responsive mobile tourism websites: a user experience study. In Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2015; 26(2): 593-606.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Community Health Development Quarterly Khon Kaen University
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Articles in this journal are copyrighted by the x may be read and used for academic purposes, such as teaching, research, or citation, with proper credit given to the author and the journal.use or modification of the articles is prohibited without permission.
statements expressed in the articles are solely the opinions of the authors.
authors are fully responsible for the content and accuracy of their articles.
other reuse or republication requires permission from the journal."
