Strengthening Healthcare Referral Systems In Nigeria Using The Medical Referral Information Management System

Abstract

The challenges faced by physicians and medical practitioners in referring patients to an appropriate healthcare provider for continuation of care, have been a major discourse in healthcare services. Most referral actions by physicians and practitioners are a mere handover of patients because of the inability of most receiving facilities to provide feedback to the initiating facility. These challenges have often led to delay in commencement of treatment and decreased collaboration between the different levels of healthcare – primary, secondary and tertiary. In this work, a system that enhances the referral process by aiding healthcare providers in establishing a connection with an appropriate healthcare provider for outpatient referrals was developed. The system enables patients establish first contact with a suitable primary healthcare provider. The methodology adopted is Object Oriented Hypermedia Design Methodology; it is one of the first methods to postulate the separation of concerns that defines its various models: requirements, conceptual, navigation, abstract interface and implementation. The system provides interfaces through which a healthcare provider can establish connection with another healthcare provider for purpose of referral. The results obtained using the system includes the recommendation of healthcare providers upon a specialty, care level and location based search request by a health provider. With the developed system, healthcare providers can easily reach nearby or far away healthcare facilities of varying specialties; this improves collaboration in healthcare services and strengthens the referral process.