Improving Health Care System of Pakistan

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.