DATA INTEGRITY IN THE HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY: ANALYZING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF DATA SECURITY IN GOOD DATA AND RECORD MANAGEMENT PRACTICES (A CASE STUDY OF COMPUTERIZING THE COMPETENCE MATRIX FOR A QUALITY CONTROL DRUG LABORATORY)

This project analyzes the concept of time efficiency in the data management process associated with the personnel training and competence assessments in the quality control (QC) laboratory of Nigeria’s foods and drugs authority (NAFDAC). The laboratory administrators are encumbered with a lot of mental and paper-based record keeping because the personnel training data is managed manually. Consequently, the personnel training and competence assessments in the laboratory are not efficiently conducted. The Microsoft Excel spreadsheet provided by a Purdue doctoral dissertation as a remedial to this is found to be deficient in handling operations in database tables. As a result, hence doctoral dissertation did not appropriately address the inefficiencies.

The problem addressed by this study is the operational inefficiency that results from the manual or Excel-based personnel training data management process in the NAFDAC laboratory. The purpose, therefore, is to reduce the time it essentially takes to generate, obtain, manipulate, exchange, and securely store the personnel competence training and assessment data. To do this, the study developed a software system that is integrated with a relational database management system (RDBMS) to improve the manual/Microsoft Excel-based data management procedure. This project examines the operational (time) efficiencies in using manual or Excel-based format in comparison with the new system that this project developed, as a method to ascertain its validity.

The data used in this qualitative research is from literary sources and from simulating the distinction between the times spent in administering personnel training and competence assessment using the New system developed by this study and the Excel system by another project, respectively. The fundamental finding of this study is that the idea of improving the operational (time) efficiency in the personnel training and competence assessment process in the QC laboratory is valid. Doing that will reduce human errors, achieve enhanced time-efficient operation, and improve personnel training and competence assessment processes.

Recommendations are made as to the procedure the laboratory administrator must adopt to take advantage of the new system. The study also recommended the steps for the potential research to extend the capability of this project.