Lagos – Dr Omodele Osunkiyesi, the Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Health, has urged health information managers to provide reliabile, timely and accurate data for improved patient care delivery in the health sector.
Osunkiyesi made the call at the 2015 Health Information Management Week of the Health Information Department, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Lagos, on Friday with the theme “The Importance Of Health Information For A Change In Health Sector.’’
Represented by Mr Babatunde Asaye of the ministry, the permanent secretary said that the week-long event had set a landmark in generating documentation and protecting patients’ confidentiality while allowing access to providers in order to promote quality care.
He said “sound and reliable information is the foundation of decision-making across all health system building blocks essential for health system policy development and implementation, governance and regulation, health research and financing.
“It is also essential for health research, human resources development, health education and training; information is of little value if it is not available in formats that meet the needs of multiple users.
“Therefore, dissemination and communication are essential attributes of the Health Information System (HIS) that drives positive change in the health sector.
“A good HIS brings together all relevant partners to ensure that users of health information have access to quality data.
“Consequently, we must collectively strive toward ensuring reliable, accurate and timely data for change in our health sector.’’
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The Chief Medical Director of LASUTH, Dr Wale Oke, emphasised that health management and information system was an integral part of the administration of the hospital.
According to him, there is need for improved record keeping system as health information management is important to project for the future, in researches and analysing patients’ history and treatment.
Oke assured that the management of LASUTH was looking at means and measures to improve the Health Information Department of the institution.
Dr Sunday Ayeni, the Head Of Department of the Health Information Department, LASUTH , described health information as scientific, administrative and legal documents and computation, written in the sequence of events.
According to him, it is to justify the diagnosis that warrant the treatment and end result of patients and medical cases.
Ayeni said that Health Information Managers were the custodians of patients’ records, evaluators of the quality records, health information providers and medical records auditors.
On the importance of medical records, he said that they served as medical history for patients and could be used to monitor the quality of patient’s care given by the healthcare provider.
“Medical records can serve as legal documents to defend patients and healthcare providers; it is used for administrative work, for planning and also for budgeting.
`It can also be used for learning and research purposes to monitor the health status of people in an area, used for statistical purposes and clinical decision for better management.
“It serves as means of enlightenment to the public and the health information can bring change to the health sector.
“This can be through learning, information sharing, moving from passive to active, moving from curative to preventive, from fancy to reality, from attack to persuasion and can also discourage disunity among health workers,’’ he said.
Prof Michael Bankole, a pediatrician at LASUTH, said medical practice without records was a great negligence and professional arrogance at its best.
According to him, Health Information Management is the new name for medical records profession and professionals.
He said that the essence of orthodox medical practice was good record keeping as every member of a medical team could have access to health information as required.
“The completeness and accuracy of the data gathering is what will give the best lead to identifying the problems of each patient seen.
“It is best to have a standard way of entering data and it is time to use electronic means of record keeping to make for easy computation and accessibility,’’ Bankole said. (NAN)
