Background information
The maternity wards are highly congested in most hospitals due to the high number of deliveries in certain months of the year. The wards are overburdened and crowded and the care givers such as midwives, nurses and clinicians are unable to control these cases of overcrowding due to the regular transfers and changing shifts of the health workers. This project will focus on quality improvement of the maternity ward of St Luke’s Medical Center in Hong Kong, China through computerization. The hospital has one of the largest maternity ward that serves over 60,000 women and young mothers annually.
Statement of the problem
The root cause of numerous delivery mistakes and deaths in maternity wards loss of patients’ data according to research done by JCAHO (Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare services). Lack of a computerized data system may lead to poor prescription of drugs to patients in the maternity wards. In addition, wrong dosage of drugs to women in the maternity wards can lead to increased chances of postpartum mental disorder, increased sympathetic cardiovascular modulation, acute sleep deprivation and vascular(Chan, 2009). Therefore, implementation of computerized system within maternity wards will reverse the above trends. That is; there will be reduced risks of postpartum mental disorder, low cases of sympathetic cardiovascular modulation, few cases of sleep deprivation, and low level of vascular dysfunction (Chow et al., 2011).
Research aims and objectives
The main aim of this research study is to investigate the computerization on maternity deaths at St Luke’s Medical Center in Hong Kong.
Research questions
The specific aims of this research project is to answer the research questions outlined below:
- How does lack of maternal affects newly born babies at St Luke’s Medical Center in Hong Kong?
- What are the effects of manual data storage on care giving activities at St Luke’s Medical Center in Hong Kong?
- What are the views of mothers on computerization of the operations of St Luke’s Medical Center in Hong Kong?
- What are the key factors that contribute to frequent data loss at St Luke’s Medical Center in Hong Kong?
Justification
The impacts of computerization at noise St Luke’s Medical Center in Hong Kong have been a subject of great interest among healthcare providers and researchers in medical field particularly the obstetricians and pediatricians. The fact that loss of data on prenatal care due to manual data storage has negatively impacted on healthcare provision for women and their newly born children is a case to basically consider with a lot of interest. St Luke’s Medical Center in Hong Kong has frequently reported cases of maternal death that have been associated with lack of information on prenatal as well as antenatal clinic. These maternal deaths are likely to drastically reduce the population of people living within St Luke’s Medical Center. Such reduced population has greater overall impact on the population of Hong Kong and the future population of China in general. There will be no young men and women to replace the ageing China population. Because of maternal deaths that may affect the economy, the following are the likely benefits to conduct this research project.
- It will help St Luke’s Medical Center to understand how frequent loss of patient information on the maternity wards results to health hazards
- The research project will also assist in broadening the understanding of computerization at the maternity wards on quality of service delivery at the hospital
- The managers and decision-makers of St Luke’s Medical Center may utilize the findings of this study to improve on methods of the use of information technology. However, as a limitation of this research project, it is not guaranteed that the outcomes of the study will be perfect strategies to implement computerization that will be adopted by St Luke’s Medical Center
- Moreover, if successful the findings of this research project will be very significant to other researchers in the same area of study as well as policy makers in the health sector.
Expected Research Output/Outcome
The expected output of this research project is likely to present a very thorough analysis framework that will generally be utilized to investigate and evaluate factors causing frequent loss of crucial information at the maternity wards at St Luke’s Medical Center. The factors that will be identified will be used in developing strategies that will be employed in improving information technology through computerization at St Luke’s Medical Center so that the medical facility can reclaim its former lost glory and continue improving on its service delivery. In summary, the findings of this study will equip the administrators and top managers of the hospital with sufficient background information on the importance of computerization within the precincts of maternity wards.