The Problem and Its Setting
This chapter presents the background of the study, the statement of the problem, the assumptions made in accordance with the design of the project, the scope and delimitation, the significance of the study, the research design and methodology, and the definition of terms used in the study.
Background of the Study
There have been major progresses in the Information Technology for the past twenty (20) years especially in the field of Medicine. The vast development of technology is the evident in hospitals in other countries as they have developed and implemented different forms of Patient Record Management System making practitioners and health professionals’ work easier than the manual way of gathering patient’s record that the hospitals had before.
In Philippines, only a few hospitals (Saint Lukes Medical Center, Makati Medical City and Asian Hospital and Medical Center) have implemented a fully Electronic Medical Record which includes all inpatient and outpatient healthcare information. The goal of the hospital is to share information with all the national hospitals and public healthcare facilities and at present they can share data with one branch of the hospital.
Some hospitals still use the manual method which is time and energy consuming but why it is that only few hospitals in the Philippines, being a newly industrialized country may have a factor on why implementing a PRMS is impossible. The possible reasons could be insufficient funds, lack of technical expertise and computer skills and the lack of data processing facilities. In addition, the resistance of medical practitioners and health professionals generally to change from manual to electronic documentation may be a problem. Most health administrators and information managers are used to the old system and have this fear that it may take time to change or at least modify some behaviour and attitudes.
The reason for wanting to change to an electronic system is