the fate of health information management in ghana

7/28/2019 The Fate of Health Information Management in Ghana

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SIMON DZOKOTO

P.O. BOX HP 96HO.

21 APRIL 2006.

The Editor,

Graphic Communications Group Ltd

Graphic RoadP.O. Box GP742,

Accra.

I would be very grateful if you could publish this letter in your authoritative News

paper as a way of adding my voice to the need for quality health care delivery inGhana.

Health Information Management is regarded as the major catalyst to the system ofhealth care delivery in America, United Kingdom and other well endowed nations in

the World. The activities of the Health Information Management Associations in

these countries have actually created the awareness of the importance of HealthInformation and also assisted in the policy guidance, decision making, monitoring

and Evaluation in these countries.

In Ghana, the Health information Unit which hitherto was known as the medicalRecords Department or the Biostatistics Department is one of the frustrated

departments in the countrys health facilities. Staff of this department are seen as

school dropouts and nonentities in the health care delivery. They are never regarded

in anywhere and their efforts are never recognized in the health care delivery in thecountry. Most of the attention is always given to those involved in the Disease

Control activities whose work may even be made easier by the staff of the Medical

Records Department/Health information Unit. When the Health Information Unitcould be properly resourced to be able to provide on daily or weekly basis, analysed

data on morbidity conditions visiting our health facilities, the work of the Disease

Control officers and the Public Health Units will be better seen.Presently, the Medical Records Department which is now called the Health

Information Units of the health care facilities are placed in obscure corners or are

made to share a room with other Units. Some of these buildings have poor

ventilation and may not be good for human habitation.Because the Medical Records Departments are being shared with other Units,

records of patients may no longer be confidential. The rights of the patients are

being violated by these acts in the health care facilities. Most managers think thatthe Medical Records Departments are unimportant units hence do not pay serious

attention to staff of these Departments.

The Department is also one of the neglected areas in terms of qualified staff. Most ofthe people employed for the Medical Records Department are not given the requisite

In-service training or orientation on the modern methods of Medical Records or


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Health Information Management activities to be able to perform to improve upon the

management of the Records. In most of the facilities, there is only one TechnicalOfficer who needs to design, plan and execute the programmes for Data Collection,

processing, analysis and dissemination of Information. In facilities where there are 3

or more clinicians/prescribers, the only Technical Officer is expected to do the Data

Entry of the activities of these three prescribers, screen and analyse fordissemination and for decision making activities of Managements. In some facilities

there are no technical officers to do these; hence data collection and management

activities are in shamble.Decision making is always done on assumptions by the Managers because both data

processing and analysis is not trusted by the managers or information is not

available to support the decision making process. The auxiliary staff to theTechnical officers are not very knowledgeable in the techniques and need to be

trained in these techniques to assist the Technical Officers.

The problems of the health care delivery can partially be attributable to our inability

to regard health information as the main bedrock to health care delivery. I herebywish to make these humble suggestions for the consideration of the Director General

and the Director, Human Resource and Director, Policy Planning Monitoring and

Evaluation of the Ghana Health Service.1. More people be trained in the Health Information Management both locally

and foreign. This will help in blending the system so that there will be an

improvement as a result of exchange of ideas both from local perspective andinternational perspective.

2. There is the need for retraining of those already employed and are working

in different capacities such as Medical Coders, Biostatistics Assistants,Medical Records Assistants etc. Their Job descriptions must be redefined

and they must be trained to have knowledge of Medical Terminologies,

Basic Statistics, International Classification of Diseases (ICD), Diagnostic

Related Groups (DRG) etc. Vigorous effort must be made to help improvethe quality of Data by giving them the requisite training. Currently most of

the In Service trainings are in the areas of Reproductive health and other

public health activities. Health Information Officers also need to be trainedin modern techniques of Data collection processing and analysis thereby

helping to improve health care delivery and redirecting policies to ensure

good health to citizens of this country.3. The Directorate for Policy Planning Monitoring and Evaluation as a matter

of Urgency must develop a Minimum Data Set and Data Dictionary to assist

in standardization of Health Information in the country.

4. The Health Information management units should be well resourced withData processing equipment to enable them provide the quality information

needed for Policy Making, Decision Making and also to support

management in her daily activities. Electronic Medical Records System mustbe encouraged in both the Regional and District Hospitals in the Country.

The benefits of these innovations are numerous and the old mentality about

Medical Records keeping should be a thing of the past.5. Our Public health activities will have been improved if we have reliable and

readily available Data for planning our public health activities.


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Yours faithfully,Simon Dzokoto

[email protected]

[email protected]
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]

the fate of health information management in ghana

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