Sinqobile Clinic adopts new digital health system

Sinqobile Clinic in Meadowlands encourages people to go to the clinic and register to be in the new eHealth@Joburg system that will improve efficiency and quality of patient care.

Paul Lesu a health promoter at the clinic said: “The system is a good initiative as it will reduce long queues by transitioning from paper-based patient records to a digital platform which will create a single body of patient’s records easily accessible.”

Lesu said the community who make use of the clinic must bring along their identity documents and children birth certificates when they register also foreign nationals are encouraged to register.

“Foreign nationals should bring along their passports when they go to the clinic to register.

“Some of them their passports may have expired it is still okay any form of identification is allowed.

“Even if they do not have any form of identification we are not saying they shouldn’t come to the clinic, they should come and speak to us at the clinic,” said Lesu.

The eHealth@Joburg system is an official digital health record for an individual that is shared among multiple facilities and agencies while confidentiality is maintained. It contains medical history, diagnoses, treatment plans, laboratory test results, X-Ray and other radiological test results.

Introduced in all Region D clinics a few weeks back the system is said to be beneficial in ensuring faster moving queues and less waiting time, provide up-to-date patient information, offer leads for clinicians towards a correct diagnosis, present more time for clinicians and patient interactions and prevent the collection of medication from different clinics.

Mudau Mashudu a nurse at the clinic said: “We encountered few challenges initially because the majority of nurses were not used to the computers, so it took a little bit longer to get used to the system.

“However, the system made working much easier because everything is stored in the computers with no possibility of information being lost.

“The system is a solution to many of our problems such as keeping a record of patient’s arrival at the clinic and having an accurate record of our own work ethic.”

Lesu said:  “Registration has nothing to do with the coming local elections.

“The system is not a voting station, information captured will only be used for health purposes only and no one will have access to that information.”

Registration is open every day at the clinic during working hours and also on weekends.

@alexsimanga