• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Amid criticisms on the Negros Occidental One Hospital Command (OHC) operations, Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said it will continue, with more improvement in the referral system.
Some local chief executives earlier pushed for the abolition of OHC, citing delays in the referrals that cost the lives of some patients.
“We cannot just move away from it, but definitely we can improve it,” Lacson said.
OHC facilitates medical transport and patient pick-up arrangements, provides health system capacity, data analytics, risk communications, and optimizes the use of critical care services of every hospital in Negros Occidental.
Under the OHC system concept, Lacson said a patient has to pass through a triage system before being sent to a hospital.
He noted that before the OHC system was implemented, mounting complaints were aired on patients not being given attention in emergency rooms due to overflowing number of persons being attended to.
“That is why we are trying to avoid it, by assigning them to other hospitals, to ensure that they will be taken care of,” the governor said. “It is not a perfect system, and it’s a continuing process. We would definitely find ways to improve that”.
Lacson said the OHC’s goal is to assess a patient in need of admission at the level of the local government unit, which is provided access to the system.
“By encoding patient details in the online referral form, it would be easier to determine which hospital could best attend to a particular case. I think it is a better system than the previous situation,” he added. | GB
