DEVELOPMENT OF AN INTELLIGENT WEB-BASED HEALTH CARE MANAGEMENT EVALUATION SYSTEM

DEVELOPMENT OF AN INTELLIGENT WEB-BASED HEALTH CARE MANAGEMENT EVALUATION SYSTEM
 
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.0 Introduction
Almost everyone would say that they want high quality health care and most people have an intuitive sense of what that means. When one wants to develop a research project related to quality of care, however, one quickly finds what is true in many areas of research; that it is much easier to have a sense of what quality is than it is to develop an operational definition and valid and reliable measures of quality. Part of the complexity in defining quality of care is that different groups can have very different reasons for measuring quality and hence different measurement criteria and emphases. [1]. For example:
Although all of these parties might agree on a definition of high quality care they might select different measures and researchers studying these different areas might have similar variations in emphases. There is still a tremendous need for more work in measuring and improving the quality of care. In the United States for example, it was found that only 50% of patients studied received recommended preventative care, only 70% received recommended acute care, 30% received contraindicated acute care, only 60% received recommended acute care, and 20% received contraindicated chronic care [2].
Intelligence based systems can be distinguished from conventional computer systems in that: They simulate human reasoning about the problem domain, rather than simulating the domain itself, they perform reasoning over representations of human knowledge, in addition to doing numerical calculations or data retrieval. They have corresponding distinct modules referred to as the inference engine and the knowledge base. With the increasing effect of globalization and technology, organizations have started to use information systems in various functions and departments in the last decades. Developing an intelligence web-based system to evaluate healthcare will enable the hospital management, individuals and other international healthcare organizations to determine the performance level of clinics and hospital in successfully managing the different diagnosed diseases. It will also help in revealing the efficiency of the medical establishment in delivering quality healthcare.
1.1 Statement of the Problem
The following problems necessitated this study:
1.2 Aim and Objectives of the Study
The aim of the study is to develop an intelligent web-based health care management evaluation system. The following are the specific objectives:
1.3 Significance of the Study
The study is significant in the following ways:
1.4 Scope of the Study
This study covers the development of an intelligent web-based health care management evaluation system using cottage hospital, Ikot Ekpene, as a case study. It is limited to evaluation of healthcare services delivered by the hospital in relation to patient’s satisfaction and also the evaluation of successfully handled medical cases.
1.5 Organization of Research
This research work is organized into five chapters.
Chapter one is concerned with the introduction of the research study and it presents the, statement of the problem theoretical background, , aim and objectives of the study, significance of the study, scope of the study, organization of the research and definition of terms.
Chapter two focuses on the literature review, the contributions of other scholars on the subject matter is discussed.
Chapter three is concerned with the system analysis and design. It presents the description of the existing system, analysis of the proposed system and design of the proposed system is also presented in this chapter.
Chapter four presents the choice of development environment, implementation architecture, software testing, documentation, user manual and source code listing.
Chapter five focuses on the summary, conclusion and recommendations are provided in this chapter based on the study carried out.
1.6 Definition of Terms
Artificial Intelligence: The theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence.
Evaluation – The making of a judgment about the amount, number, or value of something. It can also be seen as an assessment of how something is.
Health care – The organized provision of medical care to individuals or a community.
Intelligence system – Artificial intelligence based system that converts the knowledge of an expert in a specific subject into a software code.
Satisfaction – Fulfillment of one’s wishes, expectations, or needs, or the pleasure derived from this.
Patient – A person receiving medical treatment.
Web-based application: Any program that is accessed over a network connection using HTTP, rather than existing within a device’s memory.