The Influence of Information Systems in the Management of Patients Service in the Hospital of Leiria

Abstract

Abstract Hospital patients prefer to access the Emergency Department to be treated; this preference leads to some concern by the directors of public hospitals. Though, it is important to understand how consultation management is defined, especially in terms of information technology that can help in patients’ management. Among several Information Systems it was evaluated a specific SMS service, checking if it responded to the patients’ needs, whether patients were satisfied with the service and if it was efficient as expected, to reduce absence in scheduled encounters. So, it was followed a methodology: check faults to medical consultations and rebooking, along October 2014, then conduct questionnaires to patients by telephone, in order to understand if they are satisfied with the SMS service to recall a scheduled medical consultation, and if the service failure has or not to do with their faults. Among 2337 patients that fault in a month, 113 patients were questioned by phone (from 441 selected), 87.6% had received SMS on the mobile phone to alert the consultation day and 79.6% feel satisfied with the messaging service. Thus, the SMS service is expected to have an impact on reducing absence to scheduled consultations once patients are satisfied.