The Government Medical College Hospital (MCH) in Kozhikode is on the path to being a Centre for Excellence and needs only certain minor additions to achieve the goal, Superintendent of the Hospital M.P. Sreejayan, has said.
The hospital was swiftly shifting into an e-hospital mode where almost all documents were made available online. “A patient”, Dr.Sreejayan said, “will have an identification number using which he can access all his medical reports online. Every staff member in the hospital will also be able to access online the reports that concern them. The ultimate goal is to make the hospital paperless and to make all data available on the finger tips”. The concept may later be extended to connect all primary health centres, taluk and district hospitals.
Another major development being carried out at the hospital is ‘Online OP’ which helps in crowd management. A patient, except in emergency cases, will need to have a prior appointment to meet a doctor. There are also plans to equip the District General Hospital in Kozhikode Beach to handle more cases. “More than 30 per cent of the cases received at the Medical College on a daily bases are ones that can be easily handled at the Beach Hospital as well”, the Superintendent said. The hospital is about to have a trauma care centre and a super specialty surgical block soon.
Manpower shortage, especially that of all kinds of para-medical staff was a major hurdle towards the goal for the hospital. However, the shortage of doctors was less than 20 per cent, he said. However, NABH (National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Health Care Providers) accreditation was a major step in terming a hospital Centre for Excellence. “If the criteria for NABH accreditation are followed to the core, the hospital will be a Centre for Excellence in around two years”, Dr.Sreejayan said.
