In a bid to streamline its operations and facilitate improved communications with Government employed and contracted doctors and health workers throughout the country, the Dept of Health has opted for an Intranet-based solution from Oracle Corp.
Key objectives include the empowerment of the most rural and disadvantaged hospitals and clinics and their integration into the information world.
Central to the multi-million rand upgrade programme was the effective re-engineering of the Department`s software systems to accommodate the latest Oracle 8 database and new Web technology.
"The Department has been using Oracle technology since 1997," says Eduan Kotze, Data technologist at the Department of Health headquarters in Bloemfontein. "The latest upgrade is currently focused on the human resources elements of the Department`s administration."
The Department has more then 16 000 employees, of whom around 1700 have direct access to the organisation`s intranet.
"We have developed several HR-related databases in association with Oracle. These include Redeployment, Disciplinary and Training databases. In addition, there are health-related databases including registers for TB and the termination of pregnancies, together with statistical records for hospital and clinic bed occupancy as well as immunisation," notes Kotze.
"We are currently developing a patent admittance register for implementation at district hospitals in the Free State. This pilot system will allow patients to be admitted via the intranet database, facilitating the standardisation and centralisation of information."
Kotze says the Department`s financial directorate was not neglected and a budget and expenditure commitment register was developed, making use of Oracle Web Application Server 3 software. Live reports are published on the Web using Oracle Report Server 3.
"Along with these developments, we are currently using Oracle Context Option to enable users to search the Department`s HTML documents - which currently consist mainly of policy and procedure documents.
"Using Web technology, the system is easy to use and far simpler to manage as all data is integrated."
Francois Marais, product manager - Oracle Tools - says key project objectives, from Oracle`s perspective, were the creation of a series of databases with referential integrity and ease of Web page generation.
"In this regard, the challenge facing the Department was enormous as the manual generation of code for custom Web page design was proving time consuming and laborious.
"The solution was the development of a 'code generator` to custom-design screens," says Marais.
"The main benefits of the application - developed by a team of five people at the Department - include the seamless integration of database, application server and Web browser technology and functionality.
"Oracle`s CASE tool, Designer, has resulted in significant time savings and accuracy in the development of the application," said Marais.
"Security is also an area of focus. The development area is behind a firewall and cookies validation and other security safeguards are in place."
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