FCT flags off electronic health documentation

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) under the auspices of the Health and Human Services Secretariat (HHSS) has officially flagged off the Electronic Health Record system (eHealth) across the general hospitals in the Territory.

Under the new system, all medical records are to be documented electronically thus, facing out the manual paper-based medical record system that has been in existence.

This was contained in a statement signed by the Head of Public Relations Officer, Health and Human Services Secretariat (HHSS), Samuel Musa on Thursday in Abuja.

According to the Acting Secretary, (HHSS), Dr Mohammed Kawu, who officially flagged off the electronic version at Nyanya General Hospital said that this is in line with the current global trends at integrating technology with health care to bring about efficient clinical service delivery and administrative operations.

Kawu further said that the technology has the potential to increase access to care, reduce the cost of accessing care, eliminate medical errors and increase the quality of care, enhance transparency and accountability by blocking financial leakages and improving documentation.

Kawu 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 implementing the project is required.

“This will require a well-planned inclusive organisational structure consisting of a central e-Health committee, focal persons from all units of the hospital, Data protection officer, IT staffs as well as the implementing vendor.”

“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,” Kawu said.

He further disclosed that Karshi hospital will commence deployment of the electronic system before the end of March 2021.

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.

She said eHealth will reduce patient’s waiting time as well as improve transparency in managing patient record having considered the teaming population of patients in the area.

She expressed readiness for any power supply challenges as the Hospital can boast of standby generators to come to the rescue in case of power failure.

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.

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FCT flags off electronic health documentation