Health and access to healthcare is the right of every citizen of India, where 60 per cent or more population reside in rural areas. Providing quality healthcare to the citizens of rural India has its own unique challenges.
Furthermore, the country is still fighting with the mortality conditions like infant deaths, maternity deaths and disabilities due to vaccine preventable disease and lack of able healthcare professionals in rural setup. For some villages, the nearest healthcare facility is around three to four hours of drive. This hampers their daily livelihood.
There is an inevitable tendency of seeking healthcare when the condition worsens. With such condition of primary healthcare, accessibility to specialist is a dream that is too good to be true.
Technology for rural healthcare and eVaidya
Considering the importance of healthcare which has to reach to the least accessible population, evaidya pioneered in rendering the benefits of modern technology to underprivileged population. The organisation has collaborated with the Government of Andhra Pradesh to pilot the eUPHC projects in districts of Andhra Pradesh.
Electronic Urban Primary Healthcare Centre (eUPHC)
e-UPHC is a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model of Government. eVaidya with the collaboration of the State Government is implementing the National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) in the urban slums. It focuses on accessibility to the urban slum and vulnerable population.
It is a new-age concept to bring holistic care to the local community. It is a combination of primary healthcare centre, physician or tele-consultation, pharmacy, imaging and Lab services combined together under one roof. The centre also has ANM and ASHA workers, who conduct the health and nutrition days, participating in National Public Health programmes like RNTPC, NTPC, family planning, deworming, immunisation, registration of the Antenatal care, promoting institutional delivery, providing epidemic alerts, contributing in reducing the IMR and MMR.
Workflow
Patient registration– Patient registration is done for generating the unique ID. The demographic details of the patient are captured including photo. Government ID is required (preferably Aadhaar) though not mandatory.
Complaints and Vitals– Patients complaints, family history are captured post-which, using eVaidyas MediBox (a proprietary technology) the paramedic/ nurse at the vital station captures the vitals including the blood pressure, pulse oximetry, temperature, BMI, ECG (based on the requirement). Consultation– Physical doctor at the centre gives the consultation to patient and all the details are entered into the EMR (Electronic Medical Records). Based on the requirement, the doctor either prescribes medicines, send to labs for investigations or refers the patient to higher Government hospital.
Teleconsultation– Depending upon the requirement post-physical consultation, the doctor may refer the patient to specialists consultation which is provided through the telemedicine.
Lab services– There are over 64 lab investigations that are done at the centre. Complete Blood picture, Fasting and Post Prandial Blood Sugar, HbA1c, Renal Function Tests, Lipid Profile, Urine Analysis, Pregnancy Confirmation Test, Tests for Typhoid, Dengue, Malaria, Blood Grouping, HIV, HbsAg and others are done. The reports are printed and handed over to the patient for his records/referral/followeVaidya up and the results too are uploaded into the patients EMR.
Pharmacy- The medicines prescribed for the patient reflect in the pharmacy management systems and the pharmacist dispenses the medicine to the patient. Dosage, duration and the time of the medication intake are clearly explained to the patients by the pharmacist. The in-built inventory management system helps to keep a tab on the stock of drugs. At any given point of time, the number of medicine in stock at the clinic can be known with a click of the button. The system helps to control fraud, wastage and abuse of the drugs that are allocated to the centre on monthly basis.
Other services
Dial your doctor services: With the motto The Doctor is always in, the organisation aims at using the most common gadget- mobile to reach to the patients in need of the Doctor.
Dial your doctor services enabling the patients to reach to the doctor through the phone and receiving desired consultation. This reduces the waiting time and the time wasted due to travel to reach to the doctors for minor ailments.
The way forward: Non- Communicable Diseases (NCDs) are emerging as one of the most hazardous healthcare conditions. The organisation aims at working extensively in the field of preventive and curative medical practices to decrease the load of NCDs in the community.
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