New management model to transform
the Mexican health system
• Through electronic means, they are seeking to transform the Mexican health system.
• The first stage of the project was to create electronic clinical records, which to date number more than 11 million, and which are available online.
• The second phase consists of automating the processes in health centers, clinics, and hospitals.
Mexico D.F., August 25, 2014 (CONACYT Information Agency).
Through the use of information technologies, the Mexican company Health Digital Systems (HDS) develops a megaproject to transform the health system in Mexico and Latin America.
This work is classified as a success story by the Technological Innovation Fund (FIT). “HDS is a mixed company of public and private capital. Even the National Council of Science and Technology, Conacyt, through Nafinsa, is a partner of this company”, reports Jaime Cater Gutiérrez, president of the Mexican firm.
To initiate the changes that are required, they created a new health management model, which is why they are developing a comprehensive technological platform. The goal is to modernize medical delivery processes throughout the system.
The basis for this transformation is based on the health reform that began in 2003, which establishes that the regulator, the service provider, and the financier must be independent entities, but the information must flow between all of them.
The regulator must implement general policies based on quality standards (Ministry of Health), the service provider must be highly specialized (from private institutions, IMSS, or ISSSTE, as a whole, to a small clinic in a rural community) and the financier (Seguro Popular, IMSS, ISSSTE or insurers) must generate better benefits and health packages. Everyone must modernize through information technology.
The first advance of HDS was to create electronic clinical records, which to date add up to more than 11 million, and which are available online to be consulted in all clinics and hospitals anywhere in the Mexican Republic.
The second stage is to automate processes in health centers, clinics, and hospitals. For example, they want operating rooms, laboratories, blood banks, pharmacies, outpatient clinics, and all areas of specialization to be well managed. With organized, available, and secure information, through electronic media, those who project health costs are being supported. Thanks to these systems, more efficient protection policies and programs can be planned.
The third phase is to create a transactional health center for all insurers. There, for example, it will be possible to record what a person got sick from, how much the services of the doctor, anesthesiologist, and operating room cost, as well as all the personnel who intervened. The objective is to make processes more efficient, and validate claims and medical claims, reducing costs. Today banks operate with 20 or 30% of the cost with which they worked before, thanks to information technologies.
Through electronic means, they are seeking to transform the health system. Jaime Cater equates this with the intervention of information technologies in the financial field.
“Before - he specifies - we had to go to a bank branch, get trained, carry out the paperwork, and bring checks in the bag to pay for electricity, water, telephone, and other services. Now, payments are made from a cell phone or a computer and practically 80 or 90% of the transactions that were previously carried out on paper within a branch are now carried out electronically. We haven't eliminated paper yet, but we're on our way”, says Jaime Cater.
Health Digital Systems (HDS) has created 800 jobs in six countries, has generated sales of more than 40 million dollars, is operating in more than 725 medical units, and works through operations and affiliated companies in Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Chile, Peru, and Ecuador. In addition, fifty percent of the staff are physicians and clinical staff.
The technology developed by Jaime Cater is a worldwide innovation. Some companies have tried to solve the problem only of the provider, the regulator, or the financier, but none has a comprehensive platform, “I believe that technology changes sectors and daily life if it is used correctly”.
By Maru Molina