• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Amid complaints on the implementation of Negros Occidental One Hospital Command (OHC) system, Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz II said on Wednesday the problem is not within the system, but within the emergency room triage of hospitals.
Emergency room triage is the process of sorting patients by the severity of their condition.
Diaz said the OHC is a tool for organizing hospital referral system and aims to optimize health care delivery, especially during emergencies.
He admitted that there were numerous cases, wherein patients brought in by ambulance were refused admission for lack of referral.
“It is very clear, if it is an emergency case, there is no need for a referral,” Diaz stressed.
He explained that the OHC is just a computer programming application that allows them to determine what hospitals are filled up or empty, and how its personnel performed.
“It should not to be used to say ‘No’ to our patients,” he pointed out.
Some mayors have aired complaints regarding delays in the referral system.
Cadiz City Mayor Salvador Escalante Jr., president of the Negros Association of Chief Executives (ACE), said on Tuesday that people have died because of the delays.
“When patients are brought to hospitals, they have to wait in tricycles or ambulances until the referrals are cleared,” Escalante said.
Toboso Mayor Richard Jaojoco even suggested the scrapping of OHC.
“If we remove the OHC, we will go back to the time when there is no monitoring and no management tool,” Diaz said.
Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson has asked the Negros ACE to come up with their position on the OHC.
“We just have to improve the people in the emergency room triage, which serves as a bottleneck of patients being admitted in the hospital,” Diaz said.
Having data analytics on how hospitals managed by the provincial government perform, Diaz said he will present an action plan to the governor on how to address the problem. | GB
