Intelligent ambulance placement for maximum efficiency. At present the average response time of a medical emergency vehicle is 9 minutes. By strategically and intelligently placing them, we can further reduce this time, and increase the number of lives saved

Rush hour, in particular, is said to be the most dangerous time to be on the roads. Statistics put out by the Indian Government shows that nearly 35 per cent of all road accidents occur between 3-9 pm. As visibility drops post 6pm, and people are rushing to get home, perhaps, this could be among the reasons for accidents during the rush hour. And it is during this period, that transportation of a patient to the nearest hospital is truly troublesome, amid peak traffic.

Intelligent ambulance placement for maximum efficiency. As a solution, emergency medical service providers have developed various strategies for ambulance placement to reduce the response time, thus making optimum use of the Golden Hour.  The time after an accident can be optimally used to make a difference between a life saved and life lost, if recovery actions are able to take place in time. However, routing problems and traffic congestion is one of the major factors hampering speedy assistance. By identifying sites where the possibility of accidents are higher and the closest spot for ambulance placement, the response time can be greatly reduced.

In order to operate efficiently as well as effectively, ambulances should be deployed in areas where there is maximum demand and the vehicle should be able to reach the victim within a drive time of five minutes. Heavy traffic zone is more prone to accidents. Going by the flow of traffic at varying times of the day, study observed that positioning an ambulance in the opposite direction of vehicular flow, will reduce the response time significantly.

In a sector which is tightly time bound, rationing resources for maximum efficiency is a dire need of the hour. Unfortunately ambulance providers are caught having to constantly defend their decisions to shift the vehicles from the government allotted spaces. But in order to fully understand the advantages of strategic ambulance placement, there is a lot we can learn from western countries who have implemented such systems and seen success in their response rates over a period. The same can also be felt in cases of large scale events such as sports matches, where there is a risk of having a medical emergency due to stampede or man made disasters. By having an ambulance on site or in close proximity to the sports venue, the response time can be significantly reduced and thereby save precious lives.

Manish Sacheti
CFO – Ziqitza Healthcare Ltd
Sunshine Tower, Senapati Bapat Marg,
Dadar(W), Mumbai -400013
Ph: 91 2261785000

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The average weight of a healthy two-year-old should be at least 8kgs; however, Rubina, born in Madhya Pradesh weighs only 6.5kgs. She was not always like this, though. She was born healthy and weighed just right. Over the years, it was observed that she did not grow at a healthy pace, which led the anganwadi worker in her village to declare her as severely malnourished. Such was her condition that doctors whom she was referred to, stated that her malnutrition could stunt her physical growth and cognitive development forever.

While such cases might seem isolated to the general public, reality however, is that India is home to the largest number of the world’s cases of child malnutrition. According to a joint study by ASSOCHAM and EY, about 37 per cent of children under the age of five are underweight, 21 per cent are wasted (low weight for height), 39 per cent are stunted, and eight per cent are acutely malnourished. It was also found, that as compared to urban India, which stood at 29 per cent, malnutrition in rural areas was 38 per cent. And despite statistics, as a country, we have not been able to employ even simple methods to identify such cases. These alarming findings have strongly advocated the need for India to frame healthcare policies with a focus on reducing social and health inequities.

One of the most efficient methods, which is used all over the world, is that of a measuring tape. The Mid-Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) tape, is a simple and quick method used to determine whether a child is malnourished or not, and works using a three colour system.  A measurement in the green zone indicates a child is properly nourished, while yellow means he is at risk of malnourishment, and red indicates an acute case of the condition. The MUAC can be used on children aged one year and going up to five. This method of identifying cases of malnutrition is not only effective, but also easy to use. All a medical professional or assistant needs to do is simply determine the mid-point between the elbow and the shoulder of the left arm, and place the tape around it and record the measurement.

In a country like India, where majority of the rural population lives below the poverty line, a significant portion of infants are susceptible to malnutrition. And given the magnitude of people who do not have access to basic healthcare, employing the MUAC tape can make all the difference in identifying and treating cases of malnutrition. With the increase of Mobile Medical Units in rural India, these tapes can be used by paramedics as a tool during community outreaches, health camps, and even as part of anganwadis. By using such methods of identifying cases of malnutrition, it can serve as an understanding of the on-ground reality and become an opportunity for providing the Government with vital statistics to work towards providing solutions.

Malnutrition : How a Measuring Tape can be the Key to Progress? For any country, the health of its citizens is central to well-being and happiness and thus is an important contributor to economic progress. This also explains the old adage ‘health before wealth’, by looking at the links between good health boosting labour productivity, thereby reducing poverty. With high incidences of malnutrition, tackling this is key if India is to progress as a nation. In fact, The Global Nutrition Report has called for nutrition to be placed at the heart of efforts to end poverty, raise educational standards, tackle climate change and fight disease. The onus is now on us, to work along with the Government to not only identify cases of malnutrition, but also eradicate it across the country.

Manish Sacheti
Mumbai

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In the year 2015, The Ministry of Health and Welfare published a note that instituted a National eHealth Authority (NeHA). This was done in order to regulate the increasing usage of electronic records in healthcare, and for the maintenance of digital health information and e-Health records across the country.

Coming to the current healthcare scenario of India, where services, especially in rural India have been largely unaffected by the influx of the Internet, e-records are the need of the hour. Even today, doctor’s prescriptions, lab and X-ray results are archived in the same manner as we did decade ago, and manually transported from one place to another.  Thus with the institution of NeHA, Indian healthcare is set to change radically.

Development and promotion of eHealth ecosystem

At NeHA, the goal is ‘to ensure development and promotion of eHealth ecosystem in India for enabling the organisation, management, and provision of effective people-centered health services to all in an efficient, cost-effective and transparent manner’.  Keeping this as the end goal, electronic health records (EHRs) will definitely go a long way to enable uniform and smarter access to healthcare.

EHRs enjoy the ability to store and make information available through a cloud which provide higher quality and safer services. EHRs can also ensure better care by providing accurate, complete, and up to date information about patients. Through EHRs, information can be shared securely with medical professionals and patients. By employing such methods in healthcare operations, it can greatly help with accurate diagnosis and reduce medical errors.

EHRs also go a long way in improving the relationship between patients and medical service providers, besides enabling safer and more reliable prescriptions. EHRs function as a centralised source of patient information, and helps legible and streamlined documentation, as well as improve efficiency through decreased paperwork and reduced duplication of testing.

In a country like India, where accident statistics show one serious incident being reported every minute and 16 deaths every hour, EHRs are definitely the need of the hour for emergency medical service providers. With the implementation of EHRs, systems can be installed in ambulances and hooked up to patients to continuously monitor and record their heart rate, blood pressure and other vital information. This will then be directly recorded and stored in a patient’s record, for further use.

With more than 65 to 75 per cent of outpatients and inpatients being admitted to private facilities in India, the use of EHRs has become increasingly important for accurate diagnosis. One of the biggest problems we face today is that of wrong diagnosis, and by bringing in a modern approach with e-records, this can be minimised and eventually become a thing of the past.

Use of information and communication technology

The use of information and communication technology has already made its way into our lives, with thousands of apps constantly accessing our information. Data like locations, contacts, pictures, fingerprints and even habits are being tracked, and used to communicate between service provider and user, to make our lives easier. This introduces a similar system for healthcare, which is of prime importance. At present, the use of information and communication technology has been limited to registration and billing for patients at hospitals. With the NeHA at the helm of matters concerning EHRs, we can soon change this and bring about a revolution in Indian healthcare.

Manish Sacheti, Ziqitza Health Care Limited (ZHL)

Sunshine Tower
Senapati Bapat Marg, Dadar(W),
Mumbai, Maharashtra-400013
Tel:+912261785000
Email: contactus@zhl.in

The post How “Electronic Health Records” can bring revolution in Indian healthcare? appeared first on Health Vision.

In the year 2015, The Ministry of Health and Welfare published a note that instituted a National eHealth Authority (NeHA). This was done in order to regulate the increasing usage of electronic records in healthcare, and for the maintenance of digital health information and e-Health records across the country.

Coming on the back of the current healthcare scenario of India, where services, especially in rural India have been largely unaffected by the influx of the Internet, e-records are the need of the hour. Even today, doctor’s prescriptions, lab and X-ray results are archived in the same manner as we did decade ago, and manually transported from one place to another.  Thus with the institution of NeHA, Indian healthcare is set to change radically.

At NeHA, the goal is ‘to ensure development and promotion of eHealth ecosystem in India for enabling the organisation, management, and provision of effective people-centered health services to all in an efficient, cost-effective and transparent manner’.  Keeping this as the end goal, electronic health records (EHRs) will definitely go a long way to enable uniform and smarter access to healthcare.

EHRs enjoy the ability to store and make information available through a cloud, and can help provide higher quality and safer services. EHRs can also help ensure better care by providing accurate, complete, and up to date information about patients. Through EHRs, information can also be shared securely with medical professionals and patients. By employing such methods in healthcare operations, it can greatly help with accurate diagnosis and reduce medical errors. EHRs also go a long way in improving the relationship between patients and medical service providers, besides enabling safer and more reliable prescriptions. As EHRs function as a centralised source of patient information, they also help promote the use of legible and streamlined documentation, as well as improve efficiency through decreased paperwork and reduced duplication of testing.

In a country like India, where accident statistics show one serious incident being reported every minute and 16 deaths every hour, EHRs are definitely the need of the hour for emergency medical service providers. With the implementation of EHRs, systems can be installed in ambulances and hooked up to patients to continuously monitor and record their heart rate, blood pressure and other vital information. This will then be directly recorded and stored in a patient’s record, for further use.

With more than 75 and 65 per cent of outpatients and inpatients being admitted to private facilities in India, the use of EHRs has become increasingly important for accurate diagnosis. One of the biggest problems we face today is that of wrong diagnosis, and by bringing in a modern approach with e-records, this can be minimised and eventually become a thing of the past.

The use of information and communication technology has already made its way into our lives, with thousands of apps constantly accessing our information. Data like locations, contacts, pictures, fingerprints and even habits are being tracked, and used to communicate between service provider and user, to make our lives easier. This brings us to introducing a similar system for healthcare, which is of prime importance. At present, the use of information and communication technology has been limited to registration and billing for patients at hospitals. With the NeHA at the helm of matters concerning EHRs, we can soon change this and bring about a revolution in Indian healthcare.

Manish Sacheti  
CFO, Ziqitza Healthcare Ltd

The post Electronic Health Records: The e-volution of the Indian Healthcare Sector appeared first on Health Vision.