Dr. Oheneba Owusu-Danso
THE MANAGEMENT of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in the Ashanti regional capital, Kumasi, has put in place plans to upgrade its special services by improving on the existing services.
Chief Executive Officer of the referral hospital, Dr. Oheneba Owusu-Danso, said “heavy investments have been planned…to introduce facilities and services on a scale yet to be witnessed in the history of this hospital.”
He said the GH¢2.2 million Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) Centre funded through the hospital’s internally generated fund would commence operations this year to provide top-level specialist fertility services to the public.
“Four fertility specialists have already completed their training in South Africa, Australia, UK and Ghana in readiness for the operations of the ART Centre which is expected to be fully operational in the second quarter of 2021.
Dr. Oheneba Owusu-Danso, who was speaking to senior journalists and editors in Kumasi during a recent media encounter, specifically touched on KATH’s challenges and achievements in 2020, as well as its prospects for 2021 in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said in 2020 the hospital effectively computerized its clinical operations, bringing to an end the use of patients’ paper-based folders regime.
He disclosed that the successful installation of the paperless system through the Light Health Information Management System (LHIMS) project was achieved in August 2020.
The paperless system which was one of KATH’s numerous achievements under Dr. Owusu-Danso was expected to improve the operations of the hospital through enhanced data capture and management, quality patient care and revenue collection.
The CEO said the hospital’s clinical operations computerized system would “revolutionalize its operations, enhance its capacity for better clinical care, training and research.”
Other achievements of the hospital included the resumption of construction works on its abandoned maternity and children’s block project and commissioning of its 47-flat house officers’ building at Bantama staff quarters.
“In all, over GH¢8 million worth of equipment was procured by the hospital in 2020 alone,” the KATH CEO said.
He described 2020 as a challenging year particularly for hospitals, with KATH as a frontline institution enduring enormous stress at the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dr. Owusu-Danso disclosed that 355 staff of the hospital were infected with the deadly microbe, leading to the death of one of them.
He said the coronavirus has taught the management of the hospital great lessons including its general preparedness, especially its personnel, to deal with pandemics.
FROM James Quansah, Kumasi