Neonatal Database Aims to Streamline Care in Kosice

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Peter Krcho, MD, a neonatologist and information coordinator at Faculty Hospital in Kosice, Slovakia, envisions a more efficient and cost-effective Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at his hospital--one that better manages electronic information on critically-ill newborns.

With support from AIHA, Krcho is developing a Microsoft Access database to record clinical patient data and data on drug, procedure and equipment expenditures in the NICU. Recording data on patient status will provide nurses and physicians with a graphic overview of how treatment is progressing and will make it easier to predict complications early, he noted, while data on drugs and equipment will be helpful in eliciting payment from insurance companies. "We still don't receive adequate payment for patients, and we are losing money when special interventions and drugs are administered," he said.

Krcho eventually hopes to connect the NICU database with other hospital departments, and plans to share data with infection control specialists in order to pinpoint potential sources of nosocomial infection.

"With the database, we hope to save time by enabling doctors and nurses to work more effectively with the data they have, and save time when a newborn needs to be discharged to another hospital or is transported urgently to the cardiosurgical department for surgical intervention," he said.

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