Med-e-Mass partners with City of Johannesburg to roll-out eHealth@Joburg to benefit patients

Med-e-Mass, part of the Altron group of companies and a leading developer of management applications for the healthcare industry, has partnered with the City of Johannesburg to improve healthcare delivery by transitioning from paper-based patient health records to an electronic health platform.

The digitisation project will create a single body of patient records easily accessible to healthcare workers.The City of Johannesburg Executive Mayor, Councillor Mpho Parks Tau, announced the completion of the Electronic Health Record (HER) system at a function in Soweto. A total of 81 clinics in the City of Johannesburg are scheduled to have access to the electronic patient system by the end of September 2016. With the eHealth @Joburg facility, an Electronic Health Record system developed locally by Med-e-Mass and conforming to the National Department of Healths (NDoH) Health Normative Standards Framework (HSNF), healthcare workers will use technology to improve health delivery, reduce clinic waiting times, improve patient record keeping and ultimately improve patient health care.

The eHealth system is an electronic patient record-keeping system that allows healthcare workers the opportunity to follow the health of patients irrespective of healthcare provider or place of residence. Additionally, the solution ensures confidentiality of patients information by requiring a healthcare worker to insert a password to access sensitive aspects of a patients record. Furthermore, it enhances accuracy of all critical data, issues warning alerts for any information that is being recorded and also shows outstanding laboratory results. The eHealth system is available through secure web-based transacting and ensures that a single medical record is used by a variety of healthcare workers, appropriate medical testing is conducted without duplication, advised interventions occur, and enhanced medical decision-making about treatment and cure is enabled.

According to Gideon Brits, Managing Director of Med-e-Mass, the system is designed to ensure that no matter which hospital or clinic a patients goes to, healthcare workers will be able to access their records, making it easier to improve turnaround times, services, record keeping and the overall patient experience. Primary care is a vital cog in the provision of healthcare to the people of South Africa and improving how these services are offered is crucial in improving outcomes. Electronic health records and the ability to exchange health information electronically will enable higher quality and safer care for patients, he said. Electronic health records help providers better manage care for patients and provide better health care by:    Providing accurate, up-to-date, and complete information about patients at the point of care    Enabling quick access to patient records for more coordinated and efficient care易  Securely sharing electronic information with patients and other clinicians    Helping providers more effectively diagnose patients, reduce medical errors, and provide safer care    Improving patient and provider interaction and communication, as well as health care convenience    Enabling safer, more reliable prescribing    Helping promote legible, complete documentation     Enhancing privacy and security of patient data    Helping providers improve productivity and efficiency     Reducing costs through decreased paperwork, improved safety, reduced duplication of testing, and improved health.- ENDS –