ICTA empowers Base Hospital Wathupitiwala with HHIMS

Saturday, 16 October 2021 00:03 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Hospital Health Information Management System (HHIMS), initiated by ICT Agency of Sri Lanka and the Ministry of Health, was launched at the Base Hospital Wathupitiwala on 12 October.

Director General of Health Services Dr. Asela Gunawardena, ICTA Chairman Oshada Senanayake, Director Health Information Dr. Palitha Karunapema, Gampaha District Regional Director Health Services Dr. Nalin Ariyarathna, and Medical Superintendent Base Hospital Wathupitiwala Dr. M.I. Siraj participated in the launch.

At present the Outpatient Department from a clinical perspective the HHIMS improves quality by giving timely access to important clinical information, mobilising new resources, and ensuring accountability in the way they are used treats to average 700 to 800 patients daily.

The introduction of HHIMS will thus significantly reduce the need for maintaining paper based records and enable an improved and efficient service to the patient by automating the functions of patient registration, and examination, drug ordering (prescription), lab tests, injections, radiology tests ordering, and summary report generation. From a clinical perspective the HHIMS improves quality by giving timely access to important clinical information, mobilising new resources, and ensuring accountability in the way they are used.

It also offers many advantages to higher level decision makers in the health care administration in Sri Lanka – it can help to detect and control emerging and endemic health problems. It enables to monitor progress towards health goals, and promote equity in health care by empowering the citizen with timely and relevant health related information. From the point of view of the policy maker it strengthens the evidence base for formulating effective health policies, permitting evaluation of scale-up efforts.