Over the years, healthcare leaders have worked to ensure that medical procedures, equipment, and staff recruitment processes are established in such a manner that they provide optimal quality while minimising risks and costs. However, it is also vital to place a strong emphasis on the necessity for a transparent system that provides patients with unbiased information. Several industries have already adopted methods that give a transparent operating mechanism to assist patients/customers in gaining accurate information about the system.
Taking inspiration from Ratan Tata who once quoted- “Business need to go beyond the interest of their companies to the communities they serve.” Even the healthcare sector has recognised itself to be a knowledge business that needs to grow for the interest of the community. Different opinions on the healthcare sector existed during previous healthcare revolutions. While the second healthcare revolution declared healthcare to be a technological company, the third industrial revolution, which was driven by people, revealed that information is the most valuable resource in the health sector, and the internet facilitates the diffusion of this knowledge. Only through disseminating accurate and reliable information can the finest possible health care be offered to the people we call patients.
According to the traditional healthcare processes, it is on the clinicians to inform the patients and the masses about the risks, benefits, and other aspects of a procedure. However, this monopoly of information has now been changed and after recent developments in the healthcare laws, the scope of the right to information regarding medical procedures has widened. Earlier patients were given limited information about the medical procedures and processes and were asked to make a decision regarding their preferences for the treatment. But now it is mandatory that all healthcare institutions provide complete information on the treatment process, cost and other details to help the patient and the family members make an informed decision.
Conducting research on the healthcare information system in India, it was revealed that “The data available from these sources are often incomplete mainly due to administrative, legal, social and ethical reasons. For example, understanding the compulsion and laws about cancer registrations.” Such flaws in the information system result in the spread of inaccurate information to patients, which can have serious consequences for many people’s lives. As a result, openness in the healthcare information system, both in the public and commercial sectors, is critical.
Healthcare review helps in eliminating such discrepancies from within the healthcare ecosystem in the country. These are non-bias hospital/healthcare reviews focused towards providing the people of India an opportunity to review food, just like they review any other product/service. While there are reviews for everything else, you can also review doctors/hospitals now. The information on such platforms is authentic and can be viewed by one and all which makes it more transparent. It helps the healthcare providers in understanding the perception of the patients towards their services, enabling them to feel motivated or to improve their system. In both ways, the authentic reviews help in creating a better healthcare system in the country.
We need to remember that we have options to find out the best hospitals, Doctors, and Nurses for our problems and this can only happen the all Indians come together to review such healthcare services. Today, certain platforms provide crucial information to end-users (patients) of healthcare services, healthcare providers, chemists, vendors as well as reviewers.
The writer is the co-founder of 750AD Healthcare Pvt. Ltd.