Improving the Quality of Health Care System of Pakistan
Introduction
I grew up in this country looking
at the massive level disarray in almost all public sector services of Pakistan.
The two most important services for a nation are the health and education and
when prioritized, you will only study if you live, so health is the top
priority. Nowadays, we are facing a very common problem of
irregularity, inconsistency and uncoordinated health services of the existing
health system of Pakistan; impacting more than 180 million people, as hundreds
of people die due to the unpredictability of the existing health system. A change is needed to cater for the mess in
the existing health system. Due to
the sensitivity of this sector, this problem is escalating day-by-day, hence
there is a great opportunity to improve the quality of existing health system. An
introduction of health care information system is needed to enhance the quality
of the entire health system.
Description
Current healthcare system
can potentially achieve higher quality if an efficient processing, decision support and executive
support system is introduced. This system should be capable of keeping records (including: E-
medical records, E-prescriptions, E-Appointments etc.) of individual from birth
to death. This would
only be possible through the integration of various institutions and
synchronizing them to develop a system of national level. There are a few
national entities that need to be brought together to develop such a system,
namely NADRA, National health services and other government level entities that
will be connected together using one system. A change in the central entity
will trigger a chain of related and relevant effects in the connected entity
databases. This cause and effect relationship will have a self maintenance
effect on the rest of the databases and keep them in shape and in form for
various national level activities such as elections, polls, population analysis
etc.
The
working of this system will involve everything based on your National Identity
Card number with is succeeded from the Form ‘B’. The underage population will
be worked upon on the basis of the number on the Form ’B’ as the same number is
transferred later on. Basically a health information system will be developed
with all the information of a patient’s health assigned to the NIC number of
the patient. As the health information will be assigned to the NIC number. The
electoral system of our country is already very flawed with bogus votes of
millions of voters, who have passed away. Once a person passes away/dies,
hospital would mention so on the database, thus making void his voting
capacity. This way, paper work will also be eliminated and doctors and patients
will be rid of the paper work and all information will be maintained online on
the database. Once this quality based system is introduced, the doctor will
upload the status of the patient whether dead or alive and the relevant
authorities will deal with the facilities rendered to the patient in accordance
with their status. In addition to this, it would provide the following
facilities:
- E-Patient Records;
- E- Prescription;
- E-Appointments;
- Updating and Retrieval of Information;
High quality health care system must
be targeting the irregularity, incompetency and uncoordinated health services
of the existing system. At this point of time, we don’t have any offering of this
kind, but indirectly the existence of Inter-hospital management systems are
ways of enhancing the quality of existing system, but so far those systems are
not enough; therefore these are not enough to satisfy the need and eventually
the quality.
Problems in the Existing System
In the existing health system,
there are vast varieties of problems which include health level concerns as
well as state level concerns. Following are some of the problems that are prevalent
in the existing system:
Health Level Issues and State level Issues (or Regulatory Body)
Mishandling of Historical Records;
Lack of Availability of data that supports decision making processes for
doctors; Wastage of Resources (Time of Patients and Doctors, Papers);Waiting
lines on reception for appointments; and Unnecessary repeat testing are few of
the health level concerns that the existing health system constantly failed to
deliver; whereas Undocumented births and deaths; Lack of Performance evaluation
of Doctors and Hospitals; and Migrated people having free medical aid in
government hospitals are few of the state level concerns that are not catered
by the existing health system.
Potential Benefits of Improved Quality Based System
Benefits of improved health care
information system are divided in to various categories that include:
- Processing Benefits;
- Benefits related to Accessibility of Records;
- Decision Support Benefits;
- Benefits Related to Performance Evaluation;
- Benefits as Saver of Resources Creation of revenue and Developmental Benefits.
Processing Benefits
- This quality based system will provide Information Symmetry in Medical Records as well as the continuity of information which would result in Reduction of Medical Errors which is the major problem in current health care system which would result in reduction in Medical Errors;
- Patient’s information needs to be entered only once from there on it would be accessible across the system (anywhere patient wants it to be). Access of entire information of Patient wherever he/she is;
- Major problem is how doctors share medical information with patients and sometimes which results in unnecessary repeat testing will be solved;
- Improved system will connect various departments of Health Care Industry i.e. Hospitals and Pharmacies; which would make it feasible for the Medical Stores to access prescriptions of Patients.
- This will also Increase the productivity by reducing the documentation time through computerized appointments with the facility of cancellation of appointments;
- Application of this system will subsequently result in the reduction in creation of fake records.
Benefits Related to Accessibility of Information
- Ability to View Past Medical Reports;
- Ability to Search Available Specialists.
Decision Support Benefits
- Improved system will provide Information Symmetry in Medical Records as well as the continuity of information which will act as a decision support system which is likely to result in Reduction of Medical Errors;
Benefits Related to Performance Evaluation
- Performance evaluation of Doctors;
- Performance Evaluation of Hospitals;
- Accountability of All Concerned Institutions;
- Tracking of Each Record.
Benefits as Saver of Resources and Developmental Benefits
Paper Free System Economic
Benefit save resources paper along with some immeasurable benefits;
following are some other benefits:
- Cost Effective;
- Reduction Of Documentation Time; Increase the productivity by reducing the documentation time through computerized medical records, issuance of birth and death slip as well as issuance of birth and death certificates;
- Corruption level in Hospitals is expected to go down.
- Revenue through Advertisements.
Conclusion
I believe that the value of human
life can’t be quantified. The
existing health care system in Pakistan is highly unqualified system; therefore
it’s a great opportunity for government to improve the quality standards of the
existing system through the usage of an integrated health care information
system. It’s a time to have a tradeoff between investing to save peoples; and investing
in some other business.
Recommendation
It’s a great
opportunity for the government to commercialize the health care information
system so that the progress of the system would never freeze at any point of
time. Commercializing will involve having an effective business plan to enjoy
the profits as well as to serve people and to contribute towards the prosperity
of people by initially starting from Punjab.
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