Empowering Patient through Transparent Healthcare

 

Patient Empowerment

            

Our life is full of choices. We have the Technology and access to information. Exploiting the resources and information we can take better decisions. In India, doctors take most of the treatment decisions even without involving patients. It is a common scenario in rural areas of India.

Unlike patients of developed countries, Indian people don’t take part in their treatment process. They follow the advice of doctors. This is the one side of the coin the other side is more advanced and inspiring.

The urban people of the country are more health cautious. They use digital services and modern technology to its full extent. When they can manage their money online why can’t they do same in healthcare case? The question seems fair, it’s the life of the patient and he should take the decision.

Accenture, a consulting & Technology company has conducted a survey on 9,015 adults of nine countries. 80% of them said that they should have access to their medical records online. 82% want an online facility to book, change or cancel medical appointments. 70% people like to update their medical records with necessary information such as benefits or side effects of the treatment. As per the same survey, 37% patients use the option to book an online appointment.

Electronic access to the medical records and services will allow patients to take care of themselves in better ways. it will further boost their confidence and transparency of healthcare sector.

Now the question is when people want these facilities why many health care providers are averse to them? Several doctors expressed their fear that they have to spend more time with their empowered patients. It will decrease production. Many of them indicated data privacy and patient safety concerns. On the flip side, many physicians think benefits of empowering patients outnumber the risk involved in it.

Our choice of healthcare provider depends on our paying capacity or our convenience. Quality healthcare is not a deciding factor nor do we have any reliable source of information available. At most we ask our family members, relatives or friends to recommend a physician. We need a more transparent health care system. Transparency in health care means accessibility of health care providers’ information. It  includes clinical outcomes, patient satisfaction ratio, physician degree & license and malpractice cases. Availability of such information would help people to choose a good health care provider.

The main purpose of the transparent health care system is to allow patients with necessary information so they can proactively take part in the treatment process. Some measures of quality and transparency are given below.

Treatment Result – The data of clinical outcome such as survival, improvement or death should be available. It allows people to check the performance of a medical premise and take the decision.

Accreditation/Recommendation- Health organizations should give rating or recommendation to hospitals/doctors for their services so patients recognize the wheat from the chaff.

Patient feedback - A patient is the best person for the feedback on a particular healthcare provider. he has experienced and undergone the treatment and services of the provider. So the survey and feedbacks of patients should be included in the online/offline records of hospital/doctor.

Health care transparency is something that every patient would love to use. But unfortunately, many of us don't have it. Thanks to the evolution of Digital healthcare system, things are improving gradually. I hope in next few years we will be more  aware of our health and treatment methods. If you liked the post please share it to create an awareness.