Vice President launches National E-Health Project to transform Ghana’s healthcare system

The system, called Lightwave Health Information Management System (LHIMS) was started in 2018, through the Ministry of Health, to reduce some challenges in healthcare delivery in the country.

The e-health project therefore facilitates system harmonization, improves continuum of care, ensures better access to patient data at the point of care and enhances claims management, among others.

Speaking at the commissioning of the national project in Korle Bu, the Vice President noted that the world was in a digital era and there was the need for Ghana to catch up in order to benefit from digitalizing our operations.

Dr. Bawumia was happy with the implementation and rollout of the LHIMS system and how practitioners in various sectors across the country had embraced it, in spite of the infrastructural and logistical challenges.

He promised that he would ensure that the e-health system is rolled out in all health sectors – regional, district, local and private facilities- so that care delivery becomes more robust and seamless.

He was grateful to Lightwave eHealthcare Solutions, which is owned by a Ghanaian, for bringing up and implementing a programme to solve some challenges faced by healthcare professionals in the discharge of their duties.

He said noted that he believed in a digitalized economy and when voted into power, he would ensure a lot more of such initiatives are implemented to improve the economy and productivity.

He was also grateful to the Ministry of Health and its agencies, the Ghana Health Service and its agencies, the implementing hospitals and all stakeholders who had ensured the successful piloting of the LHIMS system.

The Minister of Health, Dr. Bernard Okoe Boye could not hide his joy at the successful implementation and usage of the LHIMS system.

He revealed that handling patient folders was one way of starting and spreading hospital-acquired infections. The digitalized system solves such a problem. Again, storing of patient folders physically requires storage space and skillful management and retrieval and ability to sometimes read practitioners handwriting, which also becomes problematic and interrupts with care delivery when any or all of these needs are absent.

He said with the implementation of the LHIMS, facilities can check their revenue, patient information, case management among others in real-time.

He noted that so far about over 62 percent of health facilities and 21 million Ghanaians had been captured and were using the LHIMS. He was hopeful that the numbers will increase in the coming years.

In his address, the acting Chief Executive Officer of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr. Frank Owusu Sekyere commended the Vice President for his interest in health delivery by initiating the national eHealthcare in the hospital and others across the country.

He stated that since the hospital started utilizing this initiative it had been of much help to patients and practitioners.

Dr. Owusu-Sekyere said the LHIMS has eliminated the challenges in the healthcare sector, such as verifying patient records, unlike when folders were being used.

He expressed his gratitude to the Veep and Government, on behalf of Korle Bu and other hospitals for the intervention.