TELEMEDICINE DEPARTMENT

• Provide Continuing Medical Education. (averagely 3hrs daily)
• Provide Tele-Consultation/Referrals for second opinion
• Deliver CME lectures: (an average of 4 every month)

Thus far, a total number of 7280 lectures have been transmitted from the Telemedicine Department. Out of these, 20 lectures have been given from the University College Hospital, Ibadan from various fields such as: Infectious Diseases/HIVAIDS/Ebola, General (Internal) Medicine, Radiology, Gastroenterology, Pathology, Paediatrics, Urology, Gynaecology, Dietetics, Dentistry, Orthopaedics and Trauma.

1. The UCH Helpline Centre is a medical call centre designed to reduce emergency room visits and over-utilization of healthcare services by offering telephone-based access to qualified physicians around-the-clock.

   The calls received at the Center are classified as shown below:

   • Medical related calls.(e.g Enquiries on Clinic days, state of a particular patient in the ward, availability of specific machines, cost of treatment/services)
   • Real life emergencies that need immediate attention or dispatch of medical personnel
   • Enquiries on employment
   • Enquiries on admission to various schools.
   • International calls which ranges from the need to confirm reference letters originating from the organization to calls to confirm the employment status of a particular staff.
   • Others (which include individuals who want to get connected to a particular staff or unit for personal or official reasons).

   This initiative enables patients to speak to licensed doctors any time, day or night, without the need of booking an appointment or waiting in the Emergency room. Below are the other functions of the UCHHelpline:

   • Provision of healthcare services via the telephone
   • Provision of quality healthcare information
   • Provision of support for hospital services
   • Response to Enquires
   • Scheduling or rescheduling of appointments
   • Attending to Service Complaints,
   • Medical Appointments Reminders,
   • Provision of information on facilities,
   • Provision of information with tips on preventive health habits,
   • Provision of Health Care Counselling.

The other activities of the department include;

• The provision of continuing medical education for various healthcare professionals across various cadres.
• The provision of support for the rural telemedicine project.
• The provision of tele-consultation services to other healthcare hospitals within and outside the country
• The provision of tele-consultation services for patients and clinicians seeking second opinion and collaborative work.
• The provision of support for departmental conferences, seminars and project.
• The Appointment scheduling system for the Eye Clinic.

The department has successfully taken part in the design and implementation of the appointment scheduling system which is presently in use in the Eye clinic. This system is designed to manage appointments of patients by helping medical staff in the clinic to schedule appointments for new and follow-up patients. This system will book and send appointment reminders to patients three days before the appointment date, hence allowing both the medical and health records staff to properly prepare for the patients by pulling and preparing patients’ case notes. The system has provided the hospital with a platform to provide quality healthcare to the patients using Information and Communication Technology.

The department has taken part in the development of the inventory management system software that is presently in use in the main receiving bay and the Pharmacy. The system is designed to solve the problem of managing inventory and expired items in both the Store and Pharmacy. The system achieves these goals by monitoring dispatched items, monitoring re-order levels of items, monitoring item requisition, and also monitoring the expiry date of items. The system has recorded success in this regard as it has helped the hospital in the management of consumables and other items with particular reference to items prone to damage or items that are really used.

The department is presently on the verge of implementing the just concluded Operation Note Management System. The system is designed to help resident doctors manage operation notes and track operations. The system will provide statistics and charts to show the state of the operative capabilities of the hospital.

The department is also involved in the development of the new Electronic Diagnosis and Formulary System which will be an android application by the time it is completed. The application is intended to help resident doctors make diagnosis with the help of Consultants. The system will take advantage of the experience of the consultants to produce a flow-chart for diagnosis that can be followed by the doctors and it will also provide a guide to help the doctors with drugs and prescriptions based on the hospital’s formulary.