A Framework for Managing Patients' Medical Records

Patient medical data are collected at the hospitals of low resource settings but they are not processed electronically. In the current medical record management system, the majority of out-patients do not have a full medical record. Thus, physician's time is wasted by having to collect all the information again. In addition, it becomes very difficult to keep track of the patients and to review a patient's medical record. A Data Mart was designed and built using Microsoft Access 2000 Database Management Systems (DBMS) to collect, store, organize and retrieve medical information of patients at the Medical Records Unit of a Hospital. The Data Mart was mined to provide timely, accurate and reliable reports adequate for clinical research and improving health care continuity. The Data Mart interfaces are intuitive and easy to use. The queries are flexible and the reports well labeled.