University Hospital of Birmingham: AHDIDDUMS - A Data Capture & Reporting Platform for Delayed Discharges
In 2004, we partnered with University Hospital of Birmingham NHS Trust (UHB) to develop a data capture and reporting platform designed to monitor and track delayed discharges of inpatients. The system, humorously named AHDIDDUMS (Ad-hoc Daily Inpatient Delayed Discharge Universal Monitoring System), was built to streamline how UHB collected, aggregated, and reported inpatient discharge data to the government.
Built on Microsoft's ASP framework, AHDIDDUMS was a remarkably lightweight application, with the entire system fitting onto a single 1.44MB floppy disk. Despite its compact size, it provided immense value by expediting daily data capture and making hospital-wide reporting significantly more efficient.
Before AHDIDDUMS, tracking delayed discharges was largely a manual, time-consuming process. Our system allowed hospital staff to easily input, manage, and collate inpatient discharge data, reducing administrative burden and improving data accuracy. The information collected was then processed by UHB’s Informatics team, who could aggregate and summarize inpatient status across two hospital sites before submitting reports to the government.
In many ways, AHDIDDUMS was ahead of its time—a precursor to the large-scale electronic patient record systems that the UK government is still refining today. By digitizing what was previously a fragmented process, the system provided a foundation for future NHS digital transformation efforts, proving that even small, well-designed applications could have a lasting impact on healthcare data management.