HEALTHCARE



With a steep rise in India’s population, health care has become one of the biggest sectors, in terms of revenue as well as employment. However, Indian health care sector faces a lot of challenges in offering quality health care service to the masses. The primary growth inhibitors include paucity of good paramedics, nurses and doctors, inaccessibility of proper health care services and lack of infrastructure.

Swiftlychanging medical technology and the availability of technology diagnostic and therapeutic equipment along with a change in the way doctors practice, has transformed the way health care is being delivered today.Healthcare technology solutions are equipped in a way so as to modernise medical care, bring down costs, avoid redundant tests and automate manual processes.

However, a number of Indian health care institutions are still quite apprehensive about integration of IT into the system for multiple reasons such as the lack of proper standards, disinclination of medical staff to adjust to technological changes and anticipations about failure in technology leading to data leakage. Concerns related to data security, cost effectiveness, complicated user experience usually prevent health care players to adapt to the new technologies.

With a continuous increase in the number of patients and with a change in the disease profiles and re-emerging diseases, it becomes important for medical institutions to adopt technological practises and automated processes. A number of hospitals and clinics have evolved and started walking the technology way in terms of booking appointments with doctors and sharing medical reports over emails.There has been a widespread acceptance and implementation of telemedicine, Hospital Information System (HIS), electronic health records and web-based services.

The health care sector in India is always in need of doctors. Most of the good and qualified doctors practise in developed cities and townships, which leaves the rural population unattended. Same is the case with nurses.

Also Indian health care system doesn’t meet the WHO criterion of having 1 doctor for every 1,000 patients. It is high time that the health care sector looks into recruitment of manpower, either on temporary basis or on a permanent role. These doctors may be appointed as visiting consultants or regular practitioners in a clinic. Additionally the group of doctors must be recruited for rural areas as well so that the issue of unavailability of requisite resources gets resolved.

Another important aspect of any health care provider is the availability of efficient administrative and support staff who indirectly contribute immensely to the smooth functioning of the system. These members may include pharmacy staff, accountants, front-desk staff and so on. It is important that health care sectors also prioritises hiring of good quality support staff.

It is essential that skilled staff, who are self-starters and perform better beyond set parameters, are identified and trained to take more responsibilities. Every staff involved in any kind of health care service including front-desk receptionist, lab technicians, nurses, physicians must be trained on soft skills to be able to empathise and offer the best service to their customers.

This is vital as the experience of a patient starts right from the moment he/she enters the institution to the time when the patient is discharged.Not only does the modern day approach improve patient experience, it also helps in better information sharing among medical networks.

As such, the institutions should mandatorily make the learning and knowledge sharing process a constant cycle to equip their doctors and other support staff with the latest developments in this area.