Electronic Medical Records: A Case Study to Improve Patient Safety at Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital

Most countries in Europe and the USA are increasingly using an electronic medical record (EMR) system to help improve healthcare quality. Unfortunately, The Gambia government faces a series of health crises including but not limited to HIV/AIDS, malaria, diabetes and tuberculosis. These diseases threaten the lives of thousands of people. Lack of infrastructure and trained, experienced staff are considered important barriers to scaling up treatment for these diseases. The contribution of this field project outlines the benefits of an EMR system at Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital (RVTH) and how it will improve patient safety. This is a descriptive study using interview questionnaires from officials at the Royal Victoria Teaching Hospital. The study also looks into other facilities in similar developing countries with advanced systems, but not so advanced as to be at the level of state-of-the-art facilities in the U.S. Results from this study indicates the importance of an EMR system at RVTH to facilitate effective and efficient data collection, data entry, information retrieval and report generation. As a catalyst for development, the implementation of an EMR system at RVTH may make it one on the best hospitals in the West African region