To sustain quality healthcare amid pandemic, medical and information technology experts have called for hospital digitization.
Former Philippine Medical Association (PMA) president Bu Castrol has called on hospitals to adopt digital innovations to enhance delivery of healthcare services as medical frontlines and hospital capacities continue to be pushed to the limit due to rising Covid-19 cases.
Castrol cited global studies, including the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showing over 40 per cent drop of patients visiting hospitals due to fear of virus infection.
Speaking during the Globe Business Webinar titled “Own Progress through Collaboration: Innovating Healthcare with Digital Technologies,” Castro lamented the virus has already claimed the lives of more than 40 local doctors.
To avert this incident of loss, Castro said the healthcare industry can devise a way to enable doctors to attend to their patients, “without the risks of exposure (to Covid-19), while patients are provided quality treatment.”
A pathologist and medico-legal expert, Castro said telemedicine, a form of diagnosis and treatment of patients through telecommunications “may not be perfect, but best in the time of pandemic.”
Globe Business offers a modular and digital system for hospitals that automates administrative, financial, and logistical processes through a secured platform, said Manelle Cousart-Suyat, Industry Marketing Head for Healthcare of Globe Business.
“A lot of realizations from our healthcare partners dwell on digitization as this can help alleviate stress on the manual process and give them more time to handle cases without having to worry about the administrative aspect,” said Suyat.
Globe Business has partnered with the Bank of Philippine Islands (BPI) through the GMB TechLoans Loan Program to offer hospitals an exclusive term loan facility to purchase ICT Solutions.
With this, they can enjoy Demo-to-Purchase programs at interest rates lower than industry average of 29% for new-to-bank clients, no collateral requirements for loans up to P5 million, and more.
This loan program aims to help hospitals adapt to the changing times through quality infrastructure and flexible loan solutions so they can in turn deliver better healthcare services.
John Duenas, CEO of HyBrain, the digital provider of Hospital Information System (HIS) said digital innovations in the healthcare industry can provide solutions to the critical problems particularly on the doctor-patient ratio.
As of April 2020, he said there were ten doctors to 10,000 population in the National Capital Region, while there were 0.8 doctors to 10,000 population in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao.
“Digitizing the health information lays the foundation of the digital health model in the emerging markets,” said Duenas.
“For best outcomes, other healthcare innovations such as telemedicine, mHealth (mobile health) applications, and e-prescriptions will be built around the digitized health information.”