Introduction: Apart from medical examination and patient care, documentation of treatment is very important in the medical practice. Medical practice in Slovenia and worldwide is generally still based on paper-form documentation. Surgical emergency unit in University medical centre Ljubljana still treats patients based on paper-form documentation. This has influences on expenses as well as on the quality of treatment. Continual digitalisation in this area is hence essential. Purpose and goal: The purpose of this M.A. thesis is analysing data flow and ways of data storage of patients' treatments. Based on our findings we created a data flow and activities diagram, which represents the basis for continual digitalisation. The goal of this thesis is to identify possibilities to switch to paperless operations or to give suggestions for continual digitalisation of the business process. Methods of work: In the thesis, the descriptive method is used. The data was collected through observation, inspection of literature and has undergone quantitative and analytical processing. The work strategy follows a case study research design. Results: In the present work we have analysed which data and in what form enters the system at the beginning of patient treatment in the Surgical emergency unit, which data and in what form emerges during the patients’ treatments, and which data and in what form represents the exit data, which is also intended for storage. Based on our findings we have created a data flow and activities diagram, which represents the basis for continual digitalisation of operations. Next, we followed with suggestions for digitalisation of data or documents in paper form and suggestions for upgrading the current system. We graphically illustrate the need for ICT upgrade based on the current spatial layout and the problems which might appear during the process of digitalisation. Discussion: Based on the analysis we discovered that a suitable ICT upgrade would allow for a seamless transition to digitalised and paperless storage of data or documents. Despite all the advantages of total digitalisation in everyday practice an option to switch back to paper-form operations has to be available in the event of problems with the ICT or in the event of an emergency operations plan of the institute.
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