FCT to commence electronic records system in hospitals
By Deborah Christopher, Abuja
The Federal Capital Territory Administration has commenced process aimed at completely stopping manual medical records system in its hospitals with the launch of electronic version.
This was disclosed by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) Health and Human Services Secretariat (HHSS), Dr. Mohammed Kawu.
Accordingly under the new system, all medical records are to be recorded electronically.
Dr. Kawu said that the new era, “Will bring about the best possible patient experience in receiving care in the hospitals.”
Dr. Kawu was represented by Dr Iniobong Ekong, the Deputy Director, Federal capital Territory Administration HHSS.
While addressing the trainees at the launch, He stressed the need for the shift from the old Manual paper-based Medical Record System to the Electronic Medical Record System in line with current global trends at integrating technology with health care to bring about efficient clinical, service delivery and administrative operations that will bring about the best possible patient experience in receiving care at the hospital.
He said the technology has the potential to increase access to care, reduce cost of accessing care, eliminate medical errors and increase quality of care, enhance transparency and accountability by blocking financial leakages and improving documentation.
Dr. Kawu, further stated that in order to achieve this, the buy-in, acceptance and ownership of the new technology by all health workers in the hospital and adoption of a systematic approach to implement the project is required.
He said this will require a well-planned inclusive organizational structure consisting of a central eHealth committee, focal persons from all units of the hospital, Data protection officer, IT staffs as well as the implementing vendor. He stressed that this was necessary in order to derive optimal benefits at the hospitals and safeguard the huge investment made by the FCTA
Investments which includes “Installation and configuration of ICT hardware such as computers, server, networking; EMR enterprise software; connectivity equipment as well as power and supporting infrastructure.
He further stated that Karshi hospital will commence deployment of the electronic system before the end of March,2021.
Earlier the Medical Director of Nyanya General Hospital, Dr Hadiza Idris appreciated the FCT Administration for the enabling platform to ease and enhance health care services in Nyanya/karshi General Hospital, because eHealth will reduce patient’s waiting time as well as improve transparency in managing patient record, having consider the teaming population of patients in the area.
According to the statement, Nyanya General Hospital is the 7th out of the 14 FCTA Hospitals to adopt the transition from paper based to a completely digital system. Other hospitals on full digital mode are Wuse, Maitama, Asokoro, Gwarinpa, Kubwa and Bwari hospitals.
