Rani U, Somu G and Naha A
Background: Emerging new technologies have considerable potential for improving communication. E-communication in healthcare is a key to faster and efficient communication, reduction in paper consumption and increase in comfort level of end users. Environmental policy of the study hospital is aimed towards energy and resource conservation. Objective: To study the cost effectiveness of e-communication in healthcare. Method: A comparative study was conducted in a tertiary care NABH, ISO 9001:2008 and 14001:2004 certified teaching hospitals. A validated questionnaire based survey was conducted in 11 non clinical departments of the hospital. Comparative cost analysis of the paper consumption of the hospital (pre and post e-communication) was performed using t-test of ten different categories of stationery used. Results and Discussion: A majority of health expenditure in hospitals are wasted through misallocation and technical and managerial inefficiency within hospitals. A combination of hospital cost data with service statistics will highlight areas in which waste can be reduced. In order to have a paperless system our in-house IT department employees undertook the task of creating a software program catering to the needs of the hospital. A significant reduction in total paper consumption was found after the implementation of e-communication (5% level of significance, p value <0.05). Operations team of the hospital used the highest no of A4 size papers (Rs. 7480/100 inpatients) as compared to MRD (Rs. 3453/100 inpatient) Radiology (Rs. 1707/100 inpatients), Billing (Rs. 898/100 patients). Frequency of raising General store indents markedly increased after starting e-communication leading to decreased manpower consumption and increasing comfort level to the end users. Conclusion: Implementation of e-communication has resulted in a significant reduction in the cost incurred towards running the facility leading to surplus, giving more comfort to the end users and saving time. E-communication complies with the environmental policies i.e. environment conservation and resource conservation which helps to generate more time towards patient care.
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