Health ministry seeks measurable results
The government spends millions of dollars on health care each year, but in the end, how does Belmopan know how well the system is working? Starting this morning authorities are implementing a policy that seeks to find out.
Dr. Peter Allen, Director, Policy, Analysis, Planning Unit, M.O.H.
“The end result has to be that there must be better health care services for all our people and that is really all that we are trying to do today.”
Jacqueline Godwin, Reporting
Health officials hope to improve the public health system through service level agreements that were formally signed today between the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital and the management teams of the north, south, west and central health regions.
Dr. Peter Allen
“It means directly that we will be measuring the quality of the care that we offer. We will be measuring the immunization rates, we will be measuring the patient satisfaction whether we will be conducting surveys to see if people are content with the service that we are offering or it will be identifying areas where both the regions need to improve in terms of the provision of service.”
According to the director of the M.O.H. policy, analysis and planning unit Doctor Peter Allen the agreements will also help to identify areas were the Minister of Health must work harder to support the regions in delivering that service. Allen gave one example where the service level agreements will allow them to monitor and evaluate the care given to patients.
Dr. Peter Allen
“Of all the normal deliveries that are done at a hospital what percentages your hospital doing in terms of C–Section and there is a target that we set for the regions and it is a good indicator of quality and if they go beyond that target then we go to the regions and we ask them why is your C–Section rate outside the normal perimeters and what do you need us to do to help.”
Dr. Allen says as targets are reached, the service level agreements will be renegotiated with new targets established as part of the ministry’s programme for continued quality improvement.
