QMI Ltd. a London-based Micronetics VAR, has recently completed the installation of a custom-developed client/server-based Patient Management System for Priory Healthcare Ltd. (Priory).

Privately owned, Priory consists of 15 psychiatric hospitals, each having up to 100 fully equipped rooms to provide care and treatment for patients suffering from acute depression, stress, eating disorders, alcohol, and substance abuse.

Previously, Priory had been running a non-M-based system. Although this provided a patient administration and accounting system, it had severe limitations in that all data input had to be managed by each of the hospital's accounts departments. This source data was collated from hundreds of paper documents generated by consultants, doctors, nurses, and admission officers. Not only was there a chance that bed fees, treatments, prescribed drugs, and miscellaneous fees could be charged at the wrong rates to patient accounts, there was also the distinct possibility, due to the throughput of paper, that items could be completely missed off the bill.

First UK GUI Patient Management System?

The system was designed to provide consistent and intuitive interfaces for all users, from nurses and doctors to administrative staff and accounts personnel. A Windows application with seamless links to other Windows packages such as Excel, Word, and e-mail was envisaged.

QMI chose to use Visual Basic as its development tool because the company knew that such large-scale VB development would be possible because all business logic and data could be designed and maintained on an MSM database.

The application was written using MSM-Server for Windows NT and MSM-Activate (formerly MSM-API) to create a sophisticated client-server application using Visual Basic front-ends, with application logic and data being served by MSM on the Windows NT servers via TCP/IP. With QMI providing project management and training for the installation phase, the company's ambitious plans have come to fruition: the first system went live in April 1997, and by the end of 1997, all 15 hospitals in the group had systems up and running.

Today, Priory has a state-of-the-art application that represents a healthcare culture change from dumb terminals to PCs. This is certainly the way forward, not just for private hospital groups, but for health authorities that would jump at the chance of having a system similar to that of Priory's.