Development of Smart Referral System in The 10th Public Health Region

Abstract

The purposes of this research is to, (1) develop an intelligent referral system within the 10^th  Public Health Region, (2) to link relevant and necessary information for receiving and referring patients (Smart Refer) in the 10^th  Public Health Region and, (3) to study the users’ satisfaction with receiving - referring patients system. The data used in this research and development is from the followings. Hospital Information System (HIS), Patient history, Drug allergy information, Diagnosis information, Drug exposure information, Laboratory results in procedure information, Diagnostic information on radiology results, History data of receiving the original drug. There are also pieces of information about receiving – referring patients, such as information about consultations between hospitals and information about the level of patient severity. System development received suggestions from real users from the 10^th Public Health Region.

The results show that receiving - referring patient system via web applications had more efficiency for hospitals or service centers in the 10^th Public Health Region to use instead of using paper in receiving and referring patients. There was a satisfaction assessment result from 30 system users using questionnaires. It was found that Smart-Refer system users had a high level of satisfaction averaging (= 3.70, SD = 0.79). In conclusion, this developed receiving - referring patient system can be used in practice and effectively support the receiving-referral operation.