CHAPTER
INTRODUCTION
1.1
BACKGROUND
OF THE STUDY
A medical
laboratory or clinical laboratory is where tests are done on a clinical
specimen in order to get information about the health of a patient as
pertaining to the diagnosis treatment, and prevention of disease. Medical
laboratory is also a building set aside for scientific experiment, research and
testing of patients for a particular ailment or the other. Example of ailment
includes`, malaria, typhoid, blood group and genotype, broken bones, cancer,
liver diseases, kidney diseases and pregnancy. Computerization, which is the
process of introducing computer to simplify your work, is currently in practice
in all aspects of human life.
For a country to be considered as being
economically developed, the government should be able to provide good health services
and facilities for the welfare of the citizens. The introduction of computers
will be of great importance if introduced to the field, it will help in keeping
of records, diagnoses of disease, prescription of drugs. It will also help in
the provision of online information on health related matters and so on.
The
introduction of computers into medical laboratory will help in the effective
management of specimen for testing and prevents fraudulent acts which could
lead to its service misappropriation
1.2
STATEMENT OF
PROBLEM
The problems of
the existing system are as stated below:
i.
There is difficulty associated with retrieval of record
when lose or damaged.
ii.
There is a lot of space occupied as a result of storage
of paper-work.
iii.
There are a lot of cancellations on file records when
trying to make an up-date.
iv.
There is problem with sorting of records.
v.
There are security bridges with file record.
1.3 AIMS
The aim of this
researcher project is to design and implement computerized laboratory recording
system, with following objectives:
i.
To make retrieval of records easy.
- To reduce space occupied with electronic storage.
- To make up-dates to files very easy and neat.
- To make sorting of file very fast and easy.
- To prevent unauthorized users from gaining access
to the records.
1.4
SIGNIFICANCE
OF THE STUDY
The main
significances of this study, is as follows;
i.
It will provide an avenue for the registration ofnew
patient and keeping records of specimen provided by patient that comes in for
testing in the medical laboratory.
ii.
It will reduce the paper work and time consumptions
associated with record processing.
1.5
SCOPE OF THE
STUDY.
The
scope of this project is to design and implement a new system that provides all
the management features needed to maintain all records of medical laboratory
under study, in an electronic form.
1.6 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
Constraints
listed as follows, were recorded during the course of this study.
i.
Restriction to some sensitive documents for data
collection by the laboratory officers.
ii.
Limited research materials for the study.
iii.
Time constraint in carrying out appropriate analysis on
data collected as it relates to the study.
iv.
Financial constraint.
1.7DEFINITION OF TERMS
RECORDS: This is a collection of field
or a collection of information about something of interest.
MEDICAL LABORATORY RECORDS:- These are
specimen collected which are strictly medically or health related information.
Example;blood, stool, saliva and urine.
ELECTRONIC MEDICAL LABORATORY RECORDES:-
These are computers-based patient
medical laboratory records.
SYSTEM: This is a set of interrelated
procedure formed together to accomplish an organization goal.
COMPUTER: An electronic device that
processes data i.e. it is capable of storing, manipulating, inputting,
retrieving, processing, and outputting information at a fantastic speed.
COMPUTERIZATION: This is the use of
computer in performing operation on record keeping.
PATIENT LABORATORY RECORDS: These are
data collected about the patient, concerning his or her medical records. This
may include name, sex, home address, tribe etc.
MEDICAL LABORAORY: Is a building where
a group medical laboratory scientist sees their patients for research and
testing.