IT in Health Care Seminar

Seminar held on "IT in Healthcare"

By A Correspondent - Mumbai

Outsourcing has the benefits of world-class capabilities improves company focus, frees resources for other purposes, reduces operational costs, etc. Any activity that is not a core activity/where professional dedicated agency can value-add should be evaluated for outsourcing. Also selling services would come to a fixed amount per month as compared to one time cost plus maintenance cost

Information Technology, admittedly the unexploited of the technology services was the focus of discussion at the one-day programme organised by the Mumbai Chapter of Indian Hospital Association recently. With the Indian healthcare sector steering towards formation of an organised industry, experts agree that institutions cannot survive on the foundation of charity. Sophistication of services has further led to the development of business processes.

Though commonality exists between public and private in service process, great difference exists between their business processes.

But, the whole process is delivery of care, which is the core, clarified Dr Ashok Bhatkhande, director administration, Breach Candy Hospital, in his talk on MIS. There is a need to differentiate between the core (service) process and business process. His message to the hospital administrators is to identify the core process and not just ape the West. ˜Success of a healthcare manager lies in his efficiency to improve the bottomline and that has nothing to do with the service processes, he explained. Detailing on service processes, Dr Bhatkhande said that there are four steps towards its realisation, starting with requirement for service, i.e. identify the customer, what service and the provider. Next comes acknowledgement of service. Delivery of service and confirmation are the final steps.

But as far as IT goes, Dr Bhatkhande admits that no hospital is complete in having IT for a service process.˜In the present situation, EPR too is meaningless as it cannot travel with the patient when he is referred to another hospital. So a uniform structure is required. Talking about web services, Dr Bhatkhande said,A large component of patient service falls under the procedural type of service. So it is not feasible to have hospital services on the Net, since it is difficult to have a revenue model. It will not work unless site hosts meaningful content and transactions take place.

Gayatri Sampat, consultant, Fergusons, gave a lively talk on ˜Financial Systemsâand lamented that in general, hospitals have piecemeal and scattered IT solutions. Sampat opines that the Indian healthcare industry at an estimated 730 billion is our next sunrise sector with a potential untapped. A low priority sector for the government, the 22 hospitals listed on stock market are trading below par. The conventional scene in hospitals, says Sampat, is limited interaction between marketing and administration. Financial management is restricted to annual accounts preparation, payments, periodic MIS and budgeting for grants. In such a scene it is difficult to implement budget and costing technique, she puts. The lacuna lies in the financial system being viewed as sub-system of administration, low levels of computerisation and reliance mainly on manual records. According to her, implementing IT in purchase and stores department is most beneficial. Sampat clarified that in any case, computerisation should match the needs of an organisation. Dr R D Lele, head of department, nuclear medicine, Lilavati Hospital gave a talk on a very futuristic ˜Experts System wherein the computer would collect the data from patients, say, may be while they would wait in the reception, and in cases even give diagnosis. ˜At times patient is more comfortable giving the truth to a computer, he says.

Dr Lele is the author of the book ˜Computers in medicine which is a compendious guide to the utility of computers in one practice. Clearing any doubts as to the reliability that can be placed on the decisions made by the computer, Dr Lele says,˜There are two types of decisions that can be made: Deterministic and Probablistic. The former can be aided by computer as it works by rule-based systems.” Unfortunately only 10-15 per cent cases can be narrowed down in this manner, he adds.

Aptech Softwares senior vice-president, Vidya Joshi spoke on ‘Outsourcing of IT, a concept that evoked considerable interest. Aptech has clinched projects abroad but the hospitals here have yet to take to such an idea. Joshi feels that outsourcing has the benefits of world-class capabilities improves company focus, frees resources for other purposes, reduces operational costs, etc. According to her any activity that is not a core activity/where professional dedicated agency can value-add should be evaluated for outsourcing. Joshi added that selling services would come to a fixed amount per month as compared to one time cost plus maintenance cost.

Source: Express Health Care Management
http://www.expresshealthcaremgmt.com/20010228/almanac.htm