SEYCHELLES— Through a line of credit from the Indian government, Seychelles public health has been undergoing digitization to improve efficiency in service delivery.
The process is in its third year of digitizing health services and has now entered its second phase, said a top health official.
The software of the electronic health system is being funded through a line of credit from the Indian government for around US$4 million.
In December 2019, the Seychelles Health Care Agency (HSA) signed a contract with an India-based software solution provider to Manorama Infosolutions.
This was then followed by a project planning and meeting in July 2020 where the health authorities set about the customization of the software and its testing.
In March 2021, the reception areas in all government hospitals and clinics got on the system and the health authorities looked at the different issues that may arise.
This was followed in October last year for the electronic medical records (EMR) of the different clinics where the doctors entered the information in the electronic system.
The chief executive of the Health Care Agency (HSA), Danny Louange, said that the original plan was to set up the health information system but is now looking at something broader than just a health information system, and want it to be a health management information system.
Louange expounded, “is looking at making sure that all the doctors are using the electronic medical records. This is a transition, while there are still some doctors using handwritten notes, all doctors have the capacity of EMR.”
Louange explained it requires training for them to get used to it, PHS was going from one health center to the other to specifically train them.
Additionally, access to the information is limited depending on the various roles in the health authority for confidentiality purposes.
“While a doctor may access all medical files, in the systems, for the dentists it will be dental medical records and nurses will be limited to the nursing component,” Louange outlined.
The second phase of the project
The health authorities are now focusing on the outpatient component and in the coming weeks, the next phase will be on blood results going online.
Louange said that this will link the labs with the medical records and will allow a doctor to view medical results online wherever they are and next will be the pharmaceutical sections, followed by sick leaves.
“Doctors will not need to fill up sick notes but they will rather be generated electronically. For instance, if someone gets a sick leave from the Seychelles Hospital and then visits the Baie Lazare clinic the next day, the clinic will have the information on hand,” clarified Louange.
The agency is still in the process of procuring the hardware needed which are normal PCs that will have additional features of being on wheels for the wards and handheld devices that nurses will be able to use when doing their rounds.
“What is also important is barcode printers and barcode readers, which will help when carrying out tests such as blood tests. Once a patient has the tests done, the code will then be on their forms which in turn will reduce errors,” said Louange.
He explained that this new approach will reduce duplication in the work carried out as there are currently instances of patients undergoing the same test twice as they have visited different clinics and all the information is not linked.
“The same will apply for prescriptions and if someone has visited a doctor in a clinic on Monday and has been prescribed painkillers, even though they go back on Wednesday, their records will show how much medicine they got on their initial visit,” added the CEO.
The servers are being hosted by the Department of Information Communication Technology (DICT) but there are plans for Agency to have its own separate server at its own headquarters.
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