Introduction

As part of my final-year project before graduating as an Information Systems Engineer, I collaborated with a regional health clinic in my hometown.

The clinic aims to become a regional leader in the province of Entre Ríos, Argentina. Its vision is to be the top comprehensive health services provider for the city and surrounding areas, offering hospitalization, surgical procedures, diagnostics and imaging, and consultation rooms.

The Problem: Documentation Bottlenecks

The clinic faced critical information management issues that affected its billing, compliance, and revenue.

Key pain points included:

  • Unbilled hospitalizations: Whenever doctors failed to record details in a patient’s file, the clinic could not justify the services provided. This led to disputes from health insurance companies that went uncontested due to the lack of proper documentation, resulting in lost billing opportunities.
  • Administrative overload: The lack of formalized documentation meant that administrative staff were overwhelmed, spending excessive time reconstructing incomplete records with doctors and nurses. This also caused delays in billing health insurance providers.
  • Delayed case closures: Especially in short-term hospitalizations, missing documentation prevented timely discharge and billing.
  • After-hours admissions: Patients admitted outside office hours were not formally registered until the next business day.

These issues led to lost income, delayed cash flow, and frequent disputes with insurance providers.

The Solution: Full Digitalization of Medical Records

To address these challenges, I proposed a Digital Documentation and Alert System designed to ensure complete, traceable, and billable medical documentation for every procedure.

Project Goals:

  • Complete digitalization of all medical documentation, including surgical and anesthetic protocols.
  • Integrated alerts and reminders to prevent missing or incomplete records.
  • Training programs for all healthcare and administrative staff.
  • Automated reporting for billing and audit processes.
  • An audit trail for all document modifications.

Expected Outcomes:

  • Reduce short-term hospitalization closures from 30 days to 24 hours.
  • Achieve 100% documentation completeness.
  • Cut billing delays from 60 days to under 30 days.
  • Eliminate payment disputes with insurance providers.
  • Enhance operational transparency and data reliability.

Timeline: Under 6 months
Estimated Cost: USD 40,000

Conclusion

This project demonstrates how digital transformation in healthcare can directly impact both financial performance and service quality. By improving data flow between medical and administrative teams, the clinic can reduce manual workload, strengthen audit compliance, and accelerate billing cycles — all while improving patient care continuity.