Web based application development

Here is an example of how we used Web-based Application Development to help streamline tasks, and improve efficiency.

Customer

A Charity with presence in England, Wales and Scotland.

Profile

It’s about registered charity that enables people to make the positive changes necessary to lead independent and purposeful lives and create safer, healthier communities. It works in partnership with service users to help them identity and achieve their goals. Their highly skilled staff works with people from diverse backgrounds who have complex needs and are passionate about providing opportunities to improve their lives. According to statistics, on average, a service user contacts the charity every 11 seconds (24/7) which makes it to about 2.75 million contacts a year. While charity volunteers contribute around 200,000 hours of work a year.

Project Title

Charity Assessment and Recovery System (ARS)

Project Summary

Charity ARS needed to be capable of managing system user information along with handling patient records including mapping out the patient history via different users with various levels of permissions. The application would be designed for touch devices such as iPad and Touch PCs.

Technologies Used

The application was designed to be both web-based and offer a touchscreen user interface. It was developed using Microsoft 4.0 .Net Framework and MySQL database.

Solution Description

Challenge

Charity is an organization operating from different clinics across England, Wales and Scotland. Some of their programmes include maintaining medical records of the service users and keeping track of their improvement goal plans. They were seeking to increase their data tracking efficiency by using technology. The objective was to implement a touch screen patient records system for completing the intake paperwork and mapping out the goals required for patients in their community based clinics.

The project scope was fairly simple: build a web application for use on iPads and Touch PCs. The application needed to allow recording and updating various stages of patient records, searching options and managing system users with different permission levels.

The challenge was to optimize the experience for iPad and other Touch PC users. The application needed to allow all the cross-platform perks of a web application along with taking advantage of the gestures that tablet devices permit.

Solution

A web-based application was designed to create a centralized patient assessment and recovery handling system which supported user management, recorded patient history and tracked improvement goals. The system was divided into various sections to enable easy and quick access to all kinds of data.

  • System Users section would handle different levels of user registrations and permissions. A variety of users were expected to use the system such as Recovery Workers, Volunteers, Doctors, Nurses, Counsellors and so on.
  • Patient Records section would be used to store and retrieve patient details including updating medical assessment forms and mapping out the improvement goals of each patient.
  • A new user could be created by the System Administrator and granted access rights as desired to the relevant parts of the system.
  • When a new patient arrived, the initial assessment form could be completed by Recovery Workers. And further updated by Medical Staff including Senior Practitioners and Nurses for filling in their Medical Records.
  • Once all the patient records were updated, new maps would be able to be generated as relevant to the patient’s personal and medical records.
  • Maps tracked different degrees of patient’s past history and improvement plans ranging from motivation techniques, drug use history, offense history, health targets, social targets, recovery plan, free map drawing and similar activities.
  • Maps were designed to be flexible so that Patients and Recovery Workers can both enter the data but the sequence and format of data was maintained.
  • A Report section has been targeted for a future version of the system.

Result

The application was launched at the end of July and was adapted quickly and efficiently across all Charity branches. With the help of the ARS system, Charity was able to standardize their patient assessment and recovery processes and simplify the daily workflow of their diverse staff. The staff was now able to focus more on the patient interactions instead of routine tasks such as documentation and filing.

Some useful features made visible with the implementation of the system were:

  • Accessible anywhere using only a web browser and internet connection (no installations/migrations are necessary)
  • Independent of hardware, platforms or environmental settings
  • Seamless updates and support for customizable process workflows
  • Central administration for application and database
  • Rapid turnaround from design to live system

A few screenshots of the system are shown below:

Screen 1: Home screen with three main sections of the system
Screen 2: Screen for managing system users
Screen 3: Patient Records Summary
Screen 4: Updating patient history through maps
Screen 5: Sample Medical Assessment Form

All of Charity’s patient information that was originally filled by hand or in individual files and then uploaded to their central database is now automated. Patient data is centralized, up-to-date and instantly accessible at any of its community clinics.

Delivery

Charity ARS was developed and designed within a continuous development cycle according to the original specifications. After which the system was extensively tested and explored by Charity system users. Based on their feedback, minor design customizations were carried out. The whole delivery was accomplished within a time frame of 55 days.

Benefits

A custom design paired with a touch interface proved a directly useful and easy addition in their day-to-day work. Charity ARS was a natural and intuitive application that enhanced the Charity staff’s patient interactions.

Everyone was able to adapt very conveniently with the system and make sure all the essential processes were fulfilled. Some notable advantages have been:

  • Smooth, responsive touch experience
  • Efficient patient management
  • Simplified and efficient navigation
  • Significant cost and time savings

Charity was able to implement ARS without any irrelevant distractions and derive precise results. It proved to be a strategic tool in their initiative and served to add greater value to their mission of positive change.