Indian Healthcare is going thru a paradigm shift right now. It ismoving from fragmanted to consolidated. Its moving from Transaction based Healthcare model to a Healthcare contract.
Large consolidated hospital chains are emerging in the private sector.Clinic networks, Lab networks and Pharmacy chains are also emerging onthe scene. Govt is also catching up with the modernisation of its hospitals and PPP. Health Insurance is begining to follow patients even after they leave the clinic and some systems are emerging tomanage their health and disease in the society as well. However all this is happening on the brick & mortar side of the healthcare. What about technology, people and process?
TECHNOLOGY:
Is technology catching up at the same pace as brick & mortar? Are these networks/chains having the required technology infrastructure in terms of software, hardware and IT networks? Is the budget being allocated for the technology infrastructure? For a good IT setup, Indian hospitals have to get into a habbit of allocating 10% of their budgetto IT.
There is a need to develop a Healthcare-IT platform specifically forIndia. A platform that will include HIS+EMR+ERP and will be hosted, so that every clinician, administrator or manager can use it over the web. Software as a service model can become a reality now in India because internet bandwidth is becoming available everywhere through fixed lines, mobiles and DTH. The SaaS moel is economically viable because it converts the Capex into Opex. Also there is no entryor exit barrier.
Current HIS/EMR are force fit to the unique requirements of the Indian Healthcare. Either they are imported and dont include the special needs of Indian business. Or they are home grown and dont recognize the global aspirations of Indian hospitals/clinics.
Public Health informatics is still a far cry!
PEOPLE:
Is there trained manpower available to run this show? we need people trained and experienced in Healthcare + IT + Management skills.Atleast 30% of the people should have all the 3 skills in the same brain and the rest can start from one descipline and acquire the other2 in time.
I think the real change will happen when our Medical college srestructure their courses to include management and IT as an integral part of the education curriculum. Some Healthcare Management institutes have taken the first step towards including some part of IT in the curriculum, but there is a long way to go before the model matures.
We need to have short term, medium term and longterm approach to thepeople issue. Do we have anyone thinking in this direction!
PROCESS:
Awareness about NABH, JCAHO and ISO standards is emerging in large hospitals. More because they want to look attractive to the MNC Health insurance, so that medical tourism can be routed this way. However the culture of Quality is yet to percolate down into the psyche of the Indian Healthcare. This will take time to happen and will require a significant push from central bodies like QCI.
The need of the hour is to define key performance indicators (KPI) forclinical, admin and management aspects of healthcare. Some standard mechanism has to emerge for KPI measurements, analysis, publication and debate. Some healthcare body has to take the lead for KPI in Indian healthcare. Unfortunately very few even understand the conceptof Healthcare KPI.
Overall this is a very interesting subject......and all so very true.....
But personally need to differ where it comes to quality is critical.
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