Running on Empty: How Poor Data Cripples Healthcare Planning
In February of this year, scores of unemployed doctors, nurses, and other health workers marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Monday, calling for the Presidency to intervene in the ongoing financial problems facing the health sector. According to GroundUp, Phil Mahlangu, the Communications Manager at The Presidency, accepted the group’s memorandum. He expressed deep concern, stating that the Presidency was "immensely worried about the negative issues affecting the medical industry". Mahlangu promised the protestors a response within a week. This issue persists year in and year out.
What exacerbated the situation was the Department of Health's lack of knowledge regarding the actual number of unemployed community service doctors. Unions collected the data and provided it to the government, revealing that there were no available posts or budget. As a result, they scrambled to reprioritize resources to employ some doctors. Currently, the exact number of remaining unemployed doctors remains unknown. Minister Phaahla was quoted as saying that despite efforts to create more positions for the 1200 doctors, some returned from overseas or private practice to compete for these posts. The exact number? Who knows?
It's difficult not to conclude that the Department of Health is working with inaccurate data. Budgets are planned in three-year cycles, making it relatively straightforward to project human resource needs, match them with talent availability and university outputs, and create a two-year forecasting based on the annual budget. Continuously grappling with manufactured crises year after year is unsustainable. Yet, every year, they fail to adequately plan for placing healthcare workers.
There are numerous instances where the government admits to not knowing the actual statistics within its own portfolio. In a radio interview, a government spokesperson proudly confirmed that they do not know the number of foreign-trained doctors in South Africa. There should certainly be regular gathering of market intelligence to facilitate effective planning. However, it appears that this is not happening. If you were to ask Investec how many accountants are in South Africa, I'm confident they could not only provide you with the number but also their locations and even their favorite drink.
Recent research by Dr. Edward Nicol, Dr. Lyn Hanmer, and Professor Debbie Bradshaw has revealed poor data gathering practices in hospitals. Although the study primarily focused on reimbursement for services, it uncovered some shocking findings.
Here are some quotes from the authors:
"Our research revealed that staff at state healthcare facilities in 10 out of the 11 NHI pilot districts, launched by the health department in 2012, often could not provide the necessary data for administrators to accurately calculate reimbursement amounts for services rendered."
"We discovered that one in three hospital patients across 45 public facilities were discharged without the required documentation. Additionally, only 15% of patient records included diagnosis codes needed by insurers to calculate claim costs."
"Our investigation uncovered significant discrepancies in patient ages recorded in different types of hospital records, which affected facilities' ability to provide accurate information for insurance claims, as claim costs often vary with patient age."
"In some instances, patient records lacked the attending physician's signature, making these documents invalid and unsuitable for insurance reimbursement processing."
No wonder they ran around every year. Get ready to run around in 2025 too!
领英推荐
Need funding for your practice? Use the link below to apply! https://lnkd.in/d3ADcQxD
Contact us now to explore our range of medical equipment tailored to your needs. Your patients deserve the best – let's make it happen together.
Contact www.lepekemedical.com
Get the answer you need today! Home paternity test is the simplest and fastest way to confirm whether an alleged father is the biological father of a child. This reliable paternity test results are 99.99% accurate and 100% confidential. use the link:
Expert in Medical Device Demonstrations and Training Enhancing Healthcare Through Strategic Sales and Education
5 个月This is shocking ?? and one of the reasons I've left the Healthcare sector in SA Everything is so poorly managed and fir the exception of a few government hospitals the rest are in a poor state of repair, dirty and very badly run. Don't know how they think the NHI will ever be possible