A Direct Health Reporting System under which all the hospitals in the city are required to provide details of the patients on a daily basis to the Chennai Corporation is all set to go online.
The civic body is making provisions on its website for hosting the system, which would help it track the public health on a daily basis and take quick remedial measures.
All the hospitals and health posts of the Corporation, private hospitals, clinics and laboratories will in the next few days be directed to register with the civic body's Health Department.
Each of the hospitals or laboratories registered with the civic body would be given a unique login that would be accessed daily by the reporting officer of the hospital concerned.
The reporting officer of the hospital would report online the total number of suspected cases in the prescribed format of Form S. After the results of medical tests are received by the hospital, the confirmed cases with address and other details including the name, age and sex of the patients would be reported in Form C.
The civic body would have the right to ask the reporting officer of any hospital or laboratory for detailed information on the daily report if necessary. The information would be used to take preventive measures in the zones where the diseases are reported.
Malaria, dengue, plague, cerebrospinal fever, cholera, tuberculosis, epidemic influenza, chikungunya, tetanus and rabies are among the 25 diseases or conditions on the list to be reported by the hospitals.
The Chennai Corporation has instructed its officials to keep the data strictly confidential.
The private laboratories will also provide the culture report of samples of micro organisms and details of drug sensitivity to the civic body. The Chennai Corporation will initiate action against hospitals or laboratories that fail to report in the required format.
Why on earth is the name & address of the patient needed?????
They claim they want to know the localities where diseases are present (!!?!), the pin code should be more than enough. Why name & address????
Although this initiative might be useful to people, I am concerned about privacy and security issues.
Chennai Corporation can elaborate on the term "All Hospitals /Labs in the City". As consultants working with h.care space closely for last 15 yrs, some hospitals/labs are claiming that they do not come under the jurisdiction of Chennai Corporation as they belong to Municipality jusrisdiction and hence they need not follow the protocols....It's an excellent move by Chennai Corporation and they can ensure that all hospitals / labs get covered under notification..
Good step,All Corporation must emulate this Direct Health Reporting
Does this mean anyone can access a patient's details? How will the sensitivity of the data, and privacy be maintained, for example is it foolproof that no hackers can get hold of patient's details? I am keen to know further on this, do you have a contact name and email?
It's a good initiative taken by the Corporation of Chennai. I wish for its success and more such schemes be introduced.
This will be a ground breaking initiative by Chennai Civic body. Imagine the quantum of information and empowerment of the government to act nimbly on spread of contagious and dreadful diseases like dengue, swine flue, chickengunia etc. Congratulations to Chennai Civic body for taking this revolutionary step.
Has anybody challenged this in court. This may be a violation of individual privacy.
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