New Patient Administrative (AR) and Billing system at Prince Albert Hospital

The Clinicom and AR (Billing) systems were implemented at Prince Albert Hospital on Sunday 31 January 2016. These systems replaced the previous system that was used at the hospital.

Prince Albert Hospital’s patient information is now part of the same database as 49 other Western Cape hospitals. 

The Clinicom system offers a number of benefits to patients, doctors and administration staff, which includes but is not restricted to the following:  
•    The same patient number will be used for a patient at all Western Cape hospitals and Primary Healthcare Services that utilise the central Western Cape Patient Master Index
•    Patient detail and history can be viewed across institutions in developing a single patient record
•    More efficient management of outpatient visits, including an electronic outpatient appointment booking system 

The system will also provide improved operational reporting and will greatly improve the availability of statistical information regarding patient services.

The billing system will in particular improve and enhance efficiency in the collection of patient fees where it is appropriate. 

There will be some delays initially while implementing the system as the information of all patients will need to be verified and updated on the new system.  

Patients are requested to bring their appointment cards containing their patient number, as well as their ID documents when attending either the hospital or clinic. 
Patients attending the hospital are also requested to bring proof of address and income, including proof of SASSA grants and medical aid information. 

The hospital would like to appeal for tolerance from its clients and patience should delays occur in patient services during the initial stages of the conversion process. 
However, we firmly believe that the new system will improve our service delivery to all our patients and clients considerably.

The provincial JAC electronic pharmacy system will follow the Clinicom implementation, which will improve the dispensing of medication and provide a history of medication dispensed across institutions, as well as medicine stock management. This system also leads to more cost-effective medicine management for the hospitals and province.

Nursing Management and administrative staff were trained in the “new” system since October 2015 and the clinical staff in the hospital since end of December 2015 over several sessions. 
The training is continuing.