The latest version, Hospital OS version 3.0, adds a new module called iAnalysis, a business tool, allowing executives at health offices and hospitals to improve hospital management by making better decisions through overall performance planning and monitoring.

Hospital OS International manager Sutthida Chanyavanich says the new version will improve hospitals' efficiency and enable better management.

"In the past, our Hospital OS only helped hospitals turn their paper-based procedures into electronic ones. The latest version assists hospitals in better managing their healthcare services, as well," said Sutthida.

Based on the open-source concept, Hospital OS is designed for small and medium government hospitals with 100 to 300 beds in rural areas wanting to save investment costs. It is in use at around 50 sites across the country.

Key functions of Hospital OS include online registration and patient transfer, diagnosis, appointments, prescriptions, laboratory tasks, emergency-room and trauma operations, screening, billing and in-patient work.

Sutthida says the latest version comes with more functions, such as numbers of patients by clinic, average length of stay by ward and top 10 diseases by hospital.

Around 15 hospitals are testing the system. The company hopes to expand use of iAnalysis to cover all 50 hospitals in Bangkok in the near future. Apart from Thailand, she said Hospital OS was also recognised among global open-source developers and the hospital community, especially in developing countries.

"We've developed an English version of Hospital OS to serve hospitals in other countries as well," she said.

The team set up a website earlier this year to allow hospitals in other countries to try the software, and so far hospitals in more than 30 countries have joined. Sutthida says the team has also developed what it calls support modules, another core programme for the hospital-information system.

There are modules for report centres, electronic medical records, primary-care functions, migration, standard data and welfare, and they are designed to improve efficiency in primary-care units, rural health offices and provincial hospitals.

Asina Pornwasin

The Nation