1 Introduction

1.1 Introduction to the topic and significance of the study

The study was done to analyze the current information system in Central Hospital, Badulla (Pvt) Ltd. and identify the potential opportunities that can be achieved from the system to add more value to the current business process of the organization. Through this study it was possible to identify the functions which were not facilitated by the current computer system but has the potential to be facilitated. And also the customer expectations on critical business processes in the organization. And also through this study a new technical application has been identified which can be used for small organizations without a direct relationship with intermediaries like communication subscribers. Another important thing of this study was the identifying the benefits which can be achieved by a small scale organization by outsourcing the services from remote servers than implementing all of them locally. Throughout this study it emphasizes novel information technological applications which can be used by a small scale private sector hospital in a remote city. Not only that but also as the final outcome of the study a practical system has been developed to achieve the expected goals of the study.

1.2 Questions / issues

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Ineffectiveness of the channeling system. i Wastage of the time and money when using manual system for reservation. ii Unnecessary employment in reservation process. Inconvenience for the customers when channeling the doctors. i Paper based functions are annoying the customers. ii Conflicts of customer, employee interactions. iii Customers face lot of difficulties in finding information. Inconvenience for the doctors in the channeling process i Ineffectiveness in the process of keeping and retrieving the records of patients history.

1.3 Objectives of the study

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Increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the reservation process by reducing the human interaction with the system. improving the communication between the customer and organization. reducing the paper based activities. Avoiding the barriers between organization and customers by making available online reservation system to any kind of customer. Inspirit the customers to keep continuous relationship with the organization by enabling to storing and retrieving the records of patients.

1.4 Outline of the study

Central Hospital(Pvt) Ltd. is a well known organization in the private hospital sector in Badulla district. Because of its high experience in the field and high quality of service, it has a large amount of regular customers. Not in the past but when its number of customers is increased to a high level, they decided to replace their manual system to a computer based system. To satisfy their requirements they use two separate systems to handle their business functions. Quick Book package is used to maintain their accounting functions while another generic software package handling the information system for patients. Even though the system covers some critical functions in the process, it is not included a computer based process to time slot reservation for channeling purposes and a system to keep patients history. Those two critical functions are still maintained by an inefficient paper based system. As a solution to eliminate those inefficiencies in the process, separate system has been identified from the study. Web and mobile based online system is to replace current paper based reservation system while another web based system maintaining the patient's history. According to the study given solutions will heavily effective not only to improve the efficiency of the process but also to improve customer satisfaction.

Figure 1

2 Research Methodology
Researching process was divided into 3 phases. First phase was gathering information. Two techniques were mainly used to gather information from the organization. Those were observation of the current process and interviews both with the organization personnel and customers. Interview with organizational IT personnel was used to identify the role, inefficiencies and the organizational technical strengths to providing new IT based supporting services to their customers. And also non IT personnel were interviewed with the purpose of understanding current functionalities of the clinics. Interviews with customers were used to identify the inefficiencies of the organization from their perspective. And also it was used to identify new services or modifications for current services which customers expect from the organization. With the technique of observation, the on going process was clearly identified. Especially regarding the token reservation and doctors method of reporting the patients history. And also the papers which are being used for current system was observed. Next phase of the research was to studying the possible technical solutions and the technologies that can be applied to develop the solution. To achieve this phase technical informational sources were referred. Then the system designs were created based on the gathered information from the above phase. As the third phase, working computer based system was developed as the solution for identified inefficient points.

Figure 2

3 Analysis of the solution

Basically the solution system can be introduced as a sub component of the current system. Solution component can be added to the system without making any advance changes to the on going system. As a result of this independency, troubles which can be occurred in one system will not be affected to the other system. And also it improves the maintainability of both systems.

Figure 3

Mainly, system is providing services both for the online reservation and electronic patients history tracking. Simply, those services are based both on web and mobile reservation system replaces the current paper based reservation system by providing a web interface to the customers to fill a form with required information and retrieve the automatically generated token number through the internet. All the required information like available specialists and timetables are displayed on the website and those information can be simply updated by the administrators. This process can be identified as a low cost method.

Figure 4

ut when we consider the Badulla district, there is a problem of technology availability. As a result of that, if the novel reservation system based only on internet, it will not be available for most of current customers of the organization. Mobile based reservation system also has been introduced for the customers who are not been benefitted by the web based system. Through this system customers can retrieve the clinic timetables, submit required information and retrieve the auto generated token through the SMSs.

Figure 5

As an additional service, if there is a problem regarding the presence of the doctor, all the token holders under him will be notified early through a SMS. But, with compared to the web based system, mobile based system is more costly and less reliable. Online patient history tracking system is implemented provide service to doctors who expect more efficiency of the process. Through this system doctors are enabled to keep records of the patients according to the checkups. Then they can retrieve those information of the particular patient when and where they need. ccording to the design, resources of this system like website, data etc. are stored not in a local server at the organization but in a remote outsourced wd teb server. By using an outsourced server facility, organization can cut the additional cost for system maintenance, data warehousing, data security and data availability.

Figure 6

4 Conclusion
By the study of the business process in Central Hospital, Badulla, we could understand that there are inefficiencies in the functions of time slot reservations and keeping the records of patients history. Those functions are not covered by the current computer based system of the organization. From the study, a system was identified which can be set up with the current system. Web and mobile based system for reservation part and another web based system to keep the tracks of the patients history. Those new components can be implemented by using basic web technologies and basic programming knowledge. Also organizations current information system already holds the technical capability to set up the new components. According to the study, by implementing the newly designed components with the current system, organization can improve the efficiency of the business process and maximize the customer satisfaction in to a high level but only for a low cost due to its simple design. But in the future when the number of customers who interact with the system is increased in to a some point, additional technical applications and improvements of the current system will be required.

5 Appendices
Appendix A
a Home page of the web site

b Reservation form of the site

Patient history entry form

d Patient history searching form

Clinic time table editing form

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Appendix B
a Control panel view of the messaging program

b View of the alert sender

View of the message reading program

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