Nakuru County Government is partnering with a Japanese company to digitize hospital referral systems across the County to help establish mechanisms for tracking referral treatment completion and feedback from receiving health facilities.
The County Executive Committee Member (CECM) in charge of Health Ms Jacqueline Osoro said the County will partner with All Medical (ALLM) Africa, a Japanese -founded medical company to digitize and strengthen the County referral strategy so as to help increase access to healthcare services.
She said the programme dubbed “JOIN” Digital mentorship and referral solution platform for medical professionals will help the health workers in patient management and outcomes through telemedicine and patient follow-ups.
Ms Osoro explained that the programme will introduce new technology of e-health which will include telemedicine, e-referral and e-mail to improve referral systems within and outside the County.
The digital platform, Ms Osoro said, will not only benefit the referring facilities in receiving feedback on treatment and outcomes but will also enable the facilities track referral indicators, referral completion rate and median delay in completing referrals.
She added that the obtained data through the platform could be used by the County and Sub-county health officials to improve on the quality of health-care services.
Speaking after an engagement with the company representatives at the Nakuru County headquarters, Ms Osoro said the programme was expected to improve the efficiency of referral system logistics such as communication and transparency and strengthen the direction of information flow.
While appreciating the contribution made by partners to improve on the health sector in the County, Ms Osoro voiced the County government’s commitment in fostering collaborations that will shape the County health care through transformative innovative healthcare communication solutions.
“We are committed to fulfil the Digitization agenda of Nakuru County administration,” Ms Osoro assured.
According to Programme officer at ALLM Africa James Mwangi, the initiative seeks to increase demand and improve referrals for maternal and non-communicable conditions by improving access to health-care services.
Mwangi added that the programme will help bridge the gap of no mechanisms to track referral completion and help receive feedback from receiving facilities.
By Esther Mwangi
