Digitalised records will save lives

LOST FILE INSPIRES RESEARCH

A MASTERS student has done research in, the inaccessibility of patient files to patients consulting in rural Eastern Cape and how this can negatively affect their health.

Abongile Bantom, who is studying towards his masters degree in information technology at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, said the interest stemmed from his own personal experience.

“When I was 18 years old, I went to the mountain [circumcision school] where I sustained a shoulder injury and an infection. I had to keep going to the hospital in Mthatha where my folder [file] would get lost.

“I was studying in Port Elizabeth at the time and the injury had not yet healed. When I went to hospital in Port Elizabeth, I had to update them about my history and how far my treatment had gone.

“My thinking was about those people who are unable to relay their history. Also bad history can lead to drastic measures by healthcare workers. Information continuity is a huge concern,” he said.

Bantom, of Mthatha, said information and communication technology can play a huge role in improving healthcare, reducing healthcare costs, medical errors and bridging the digital divide between rural and urban healthcare centres.

“The access to personal healthcare records is, however, an astounding challenge for both patients and healthcare professionals alike, particularly within resource-restricted environments [such as rural communities]. Most rural healthcare institutions have limited or non-existent access to electronic patient healthcare records.”

Bantom’s research, which will see him bestowed with a recognition at his graduation in September, used St Barnabas Hospital as a case study where he interviewed staff and patients.

He recommends patients be given access to their health records using health information technologies such as electronic personal health records.

“This can also reduce the number of challenges that traditional paperbased records pose to patients and healthcare workers. In addition, giving patients access to their health records can empower and inform them about their health, provided that information in the healthcare records is communicated in a meaningful form,” he said.

Other recommendations look into language, training of health workers and maintaining the confidentiality of patients’ health information.

Health spokesman Siyanda Manana said: “A file is a state document. The patients have access to the documents when they are in a health facility and being attended to by a health professional. The Promotion of Access to Information Act grants a patient access to his or her file.”

However, most patients view this as a lengthy exercise which they often opt not to undertake.

Manana said the department was in the process of digitising all patient files and there was telephonic interaction between clinicians who have the same patient but are based in different cities.

“In some other instances when treating a patient, doctors use videoconferencing. The patient is examined in that facility, a new folder is opened,” he said.