Electronic referral system for hospitals in Nigeria

Abstract

The advent of Information Technology gave birth to Telemedicine, which has led to electronic-based consultations such as electronic referral system in hospitals. In Nigeria, all the state hospitals are having problems in referring patients from one hospital to another. Most of the time before a patient could be referred from one hospital to another (specialist), the patient would have given up the ghost and led to design a system that will handle referral of patients form one hospital to another electronically in Osun State, Nigeria. This paper focuses on referral of patients from one hospital to another over a computer network among the hospitals in Osun State, Nigeria. Patients were referred from one zone to another; the patient's case file and examination data were transmitted over the network among the zones successfully. In conclusion, the HOspital Referral System (HORS) has the ability to guarantee the security of patients' case note, examination data and effective referral of patients, which in turns makes patients treatment timely, efficient and cost effective. Key Words: Information Technology, telemedicine, computer network, referral system, general practitioner Ife Journal of Science Vol.6(2) 2004: 161-166