ABSTRACT
Objective:
To evaluate the incidence of a software program package at Brazilian public eye care institutions through an online survey. The package is made up of the institutions' websites, electronic medical records, regulatory assistance control system and the preoperative scheduling system. The aim is to analyze if this type of software facilitates the provisioning of eye care services, the patients' surgical procedure agenda, and access to information about the patients.
Methods:
Public health care institutions with eye care services were divided into multidisciplinary university hospitals, multidisciplinary health system hospitals, single discipline hospitals (only ophthalmology) and eye banks (when linked to public health care). Two kinds of data were evaluated on the Internet: I) ophthalmology institutions and the correlation with the presence of the software program, II) ophthalmology institutions and the correlation with the software source. A statistical analysis was performed using chi-square and Fisher's exact test. Significance levels were estimated at 0.05.
Results:
48 public institutions were evaluated at 24 universities, 15 health care institutions, 3 single discipline hospital institutions (ophthalmology only), and 6 institutions specifically referred to as eye banks. In this survey, the digital preoperative scheduling system was only found in 10.4% of the institutions. After the statistical analysis, the eye bank was the only relevant institution that was significantly related to the presence of the digital preoperative scheduling system.
Conclusion:
Preoperative scheduling systems are expected to provide a good support tool for administrative management. However, this type of instrument as a software program is rarely found in public health care institutions in Brazil.
Keywords:
Hospital administration/standard; Medical record systems, computerized; Electronic health records; Public health; Health facilities; Brazil