BUSINESS
By Semaj Itosno, Nairobi, Kenya
Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) is expected to launch its information and communication technology (ICT) master plan on Thursday next week.
A key part of the strategy will be to automate over 40 million records, generated over the past decade, to enhance its operations.
The automation will see the referral hospital save on storage space and improve records management. This comes amid recent reports that the hospital spends at least Ksh150 million a year on stationery alone.
The master plan also maps out the hospital’s ICT journey towards better revenue collection, efficiency and economy.
The Accenture Group has identified 70 ICT projects for the hospital, which will cost between Sh2.3 billion and Sh3 billion to be implemented.
Priority areas that were identified for automation included a patient registration and billing system that is not only expected to cut costs but increase the revenue base while sealing potential financial loopholes.
The hospital has a bed capacity of 2000 patients daily, admits about 200 patients in the inpatient and deals with about 2500 patients on the outpatient section daily.
The hospital’s chief executive, Richard Lesiyampe, says the process of digitising the first four million records is already underway, with the help of the Rockefeller Foundation.
He also revealed that the hospital will in future deploy its research findings on its website. Lesiyampe said the hospital has been ranked poorly among international health facilities, due to its failure to make its extensive research findings available online.
