The use of ICT when Paying Staff WagesStaff at the health centre are paid using a computerised system and their wages are paid straight into their bank account. The benefits to the health centre for having a computerised system:
- It is quicker and more accurate than calculating wages manually.
- The added security that wages are paid straight into bank accounts i.e. Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) money is transferred from the health centres account to the individual staff members account.
Employees at the health centre are paid weekly. Payroll uses a system called batch processing, this is where all data is stored up and then all processed together. In order to calculate how much each employee should be paid the following inputs, processing and outputs must take place.
Methods of Maintaining Data SecurityData is invaluable to the health centre if they lose their data it is very hard to replace. Loss of data would cripple the health centre in the short term and may even jeopardise its existence as a service. Measures must therefore be in place to ensure data security. Security can be viewed in terms of physical security, access security and data security.Physical Security
Equipment can be made more secure by:
- Keeping a record of all serial numbers on each piece of equipment and mark the health centres name and postcode on all equipment so the police can identify stolen property easily.
- The health centre could have a security alarm system and surveillance system on the building as well as ensuring that windows and doors are locked after surgery hours to prevent access.
- The closing of blinds on windows and switching off monitors at night will make the computers less visible.
- The use of fireproof doors and smoke alarms will help reduce the risk of fire in the building.
Access Security
Vast amounts of data is lost due to carelessness by employees e.g. not saving work, deleting files by accident, not saving files with sensible file names and therefore are difficult to find etc. Limiting each employee’s access to the system with help to ensure against the loss of data to the health centres system.
- Password -this is still the major line of defence. Restrictions can be imposed on length of password and restrictions on the times a user can access the system.
- Firewall - this is a piece of software which sits between the health centre’s network and the rest of the internet. It will monitor the system for any breaches of security and protect the health centre’s information and computing resources by allowing only messages conforming to certain protocols (agreed set of rules) to be sent/received.
- Anti-Virus Programs – this software is used to detect viruses and to limit the damage by removing them.
Data Security
To prevent the loss of patient’s records etc the health centre needs to ensure that regular back-ups are made of the data on the system using suitable backing storage (also known as secondary storage).
Types of Backing Storage
The above list is not exhaustive and you should explore other alternatives.Website Design and Hosting
There are many reasons why businesses or individuals have a website. In the case of the health centre it has a website to provide information and services to patients e.g. providing advice on minor ailments, surgery hours etc. Some other purposes of having a website:
A website is made up of one or more web pages. A web page is created by writing code in a language called HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) which was developed especially to create web pages. There are many web page designs. Most good web pages share some common elements:
Navigation (method of moving around the site) is important especially if the site is made up of several web pages. There are 3 main methods to of using navigation:
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The Hyperlink – when you click your mouse on a navigation hyperlink it will take you to another page. This page could be on the same website or a different website (external link).
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The Menu System – the navigation menu gives you a choice of which page you want to view next. A menu is a set of hyperlinks grouped together. There are various menu styles such as a side menu which normally sits on the left hand side of the page.
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Hotspot – this is an area on the web page which when clicked will allow you to jump to another page. It is a way for the designer to make the hyperlink invisible or for them to allow you to click on an image in order to jump somewhere else. When you hover your mouse over a hotspot the cursor changes to a little hand
There are a number of ways to create and design a web page:
In order for other people to see the health centres web site it must be placed on a web server. This is called hosting. A web server is made up of 2 things:
- A computer
- Running on the computer is a piece of software called ‘web server software’.
The website is loaded on the server’s hard disk, when a request is made to view a web page from the health centres site the server finds it on the hard disk and sends a copy to the computer that has made the request. The WWW is made up of millions of web servers, each connected to the internet. In order to view the health centres website, the requesting computer must be running another piece of software called the ‘web browser’.
The Use of Systems Flowcharts
Flow diagrams are a way to work out the best order to do something. System flowcharts show exactly how the data moves e.g. the health centre could produce a system flowchart to create a new patient record. The main symbols used to develop flowcharts are:
There are benefits and drawbacks to using system flowcharts. Here are some of them:
The Use and Analysis of Survey Data
The goal in any survey is to collect accurate and complete information. In order for a survey to be effective and provide meaningful data it should be conducted in a uniform manner i.e. all respondents must be asked the same question in the same way. Conducting a face-to-face interview and the completion of a questionnaire are 2 popular ways information is collected.
Advantages/Disadvantages of Interviews
Advantages/Disadvantages of Questionnaires
The health centre relies on information being up-to-date and accurate in order to plan or make decisions in the short/long term e.g. depending on the number of patients the health centre has will dictate the number of doctors it has on call. The type of information gathering techniques used will depend on the type of information required:
This is based on numerical facts, figures and statistics e.g. number of patients who are male, sales figures etc.
This provides depth and detailed information. It takes into account views, judgements and opinions etc.
The type of questions asked will determine the type of responses given:
These can usually be answered by a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’. They are restrictive and can be answered in a few words e.g. ‘does this answer your question?’ Or ‘can I help you?’
They require a more broad and lengthy answer and are used to gain more information from the respondent e.g. ‘When you say [topic], what do you mean?’ Or ‘What do you mean by [topic]?’
Hardware & Software that could be used in a Health Centre
Hardware
Software
Control Systems
A control system is a system of hardware and software that’s used to control the operation of a piece of equipment. Two types of control systems:
- Dedicated: these are basic systems that carry out a pre-programmed set of instructions e.g. traffic-light system- lights change at fixed time intervals.
- Computer-controlled: these use a computer to control the output device, and this computer can be connected to a sensor e.g. pressure pad sensor for automatic doors. Sensors measure physical qualities in the environment such as heat, light, pressure, sound etc.
In order for a computer to control something there must be three things present:
- A means of getting the information into the computer: An INPUT
- Instructions for the computer to do something with the input: A PROCESS
- It then has to be able to alter something in the outside world: An OUTPUT
Most computer controlled systems use a feedback loop which is when information from a sensor is used to control the output device. The sensor sends signals back to the computer and the computer decides whether to make any changes based on this information. This happens again and again in the loop system. The flowchart below shows a loop system which represents a system for monitoring light levels outdoors and turning on a lamp when it gets dark (i.e. when the light intensity is less than 50 ona scale).
Computer Controlled Systems
In the health centre the possible control systems are:
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A security alarm system which may have an infra-red sensor which sends a signal when the beam is broken.
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A heat sensitive sensor in the corner of a room which may detect the presence of a person.
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Temperature sensors which could be used to control the heating in the health centre.
Analogue and Digital Signals
Digital and analogue are two different types of transmission systems:
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An analogue signal can be represented as a series of s. The term describes any fluctuating or continually changing process. An example of an analogue signal would be the data sent along a telephone landline. An analogue sensor can take a range of values e.g. a heat sensor.
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A digital signal has only two values – On and Off. Data transmitted or stored with digital technology is expressed as a string of 0's and 1's. Each of these digits is referred to as a (and a string of bits that a computer can address individually as a group is a ). An example of a digital signal would be the data sent into a television via a digital cable. An analogue sensor can only be On or Off e.g. pressure pad sensor.
Computers cannot deal with analogue signals and therefore requires an analogue to digital converter (ADC).This is used to change the analogue data into digital data to allow the computer to process the information
The ADC is connected between the sensor and the computers input/output port. Once the computer has processed the data, the output often has to be converted to an analogue signal and so a DAC (Digital to Analogue Converter) is used.
Database Systems used in a Health Centre
A database is an organised collection of data which is organised into fields and records. The main benefit to the health centre for having a database is that it allows them to search quickly for specific patient information.
Databases can be:
All data is stored in one large table which can be viewed by opening one data file. It can be created using a database system or a spreadsheet. It is ideal for small amounts of data that needs to be human readable or edited by hand. With this type of system there is unnecessary duplicating of data which can mean that mistakes are more likely to happen during data input.
Data is split up into sensible groups and then stored in separate tables. In the case of the health centre they could have a table with customer data, a table with appointment data etc. All the data is linked together by key fields and a database management system (DBMS). This means that data does not have to be duplicated. Relational databases also have built in functions which allow retrieval, editing and sorting of data to be much quicker.