<<Print>>

THE Ministry of Health (MoH) has launched a nationwide electronic medical records and patient management system in the country.

The paperless form of healthcare delivery would be managed by Lightwave eHealthcare Services, and it is aimed at networking all healthcare centres in the country, as well as agencies and partners under the health ministry.

According to the project co-ordinators, the system, which is currently being rolled out in 26 health facilities across the country, would have a centralised data centre with 24-hour recovery unit, which would serve to revolutionise the healthcare industry.

The system would provide electronic medical records for all citizens in the country and develop a real-time bio-surveillance system, as well as develop a patient management system which would streamline the admission, discharge and transfer system.

Addressing the gathering at the official launch, held yesterday at the Trauma and Specialist Hospital in Winneba, the Health Minister, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, said the introduction of the electronic health records provide an easy-to-use interface for doctors and health workers to undertake their time and honour clinical and other patient management chores.

“The beauty of it is that all these pieces of information are stored electronically and can be accessed and shared through the electronic health records.

“The deployment of technology in the health sector will only be worthwhile if it can help us bring better health to more people at a cost that we can afford and sustain,” he said.

Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare, who was the special guest, also added that she was convinced that the system would provide an opportunity to deliver truly global and holistic approach to health services by tackling the issue of poor documentation and allowing greater collaboration and better management of the health insurance claims management system.

She said the national eHealth project and the digital address system would make contact tracing easy and effective, and provide the critical framework for functional early warning system.

“Digitising the healthcare sector through eHealth solutions would not only modernise healthcare in Ghana, but also increase our competiveness in the area of medical tourism and at the same time create high quality jobs across all levels of the health system.

“Ghana will also soon become a reference point for facilitating access to diagnosis and treatment through the centralised knowledge and experience to be made available by data repository that will be created and which will be available to medical research and training,” the Chief of Staff noted.

She again urged the health workers to create the environment that would enhance their ability to extend services across geographically remote populations, thereby saving costs and increasing efficiency.