22.12.2020

CONTEMPORARY INFORMATION SYSTEMS ASSIST IN PREVENTING CORRUPTION Zenica Cantonal Hospital Introduces an Innovative Patient Wait List Software

 An innovative information system for transparent patient waitlists has been presented today in Zenica by the Centres for Civic Initiatives (CCI) and representatives of the Zenica Cantonal Hospital. The system was created and applied in the Cantonal Hospital as part of the Project for Combating and Preventing Corruption in Healthcare implemented by Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BiH) and the Centres for Civic Initiatives (CCI) with the financial support from the European Union.

Patients, users of healthcare services most often do not understand the internal procedures that the healthcare institutions use to create the waiting lists or their capacities or priorities. Having no understanding of how these lists are formed and no insight in hospital waiting lists can lead to patients' distrust in the public healthcare system and patients’ dissatisfaction with the healthcare services. On the other hand, non-transparent process and its lack of definition opens the door for the staff responsible for creating the waiting lists to approach to this problem in an unjust and inappropriate manner. In some cases, this opens the door to corruption.

“We want to use this precise example of cooperation with the Zenica Cantonal Hospital and introduction of the innovative waitlist software to show good practices – when citizens have full insight in the scheduled medical examinations and surgeries and insight in how the waiting lists are created, the possibility of corruption is reduced; it prevents “queue jumping“ and strengthens citizens' trust in the institution – said CCI Project Manager  Asmir Ćilimković.

The Zenica Cantonal Hospital has been provided with an appropriate programme solution for the public disclosure of the waiting lists for the most significant medical examinations and interventions, and a solution that is compatible with the hospital's existing software. Currently, the hospital is disclosing the waiting lists where there are long waiting times, with the possibility of extending to other types of examinations and surgeries. The display of the waiting lists is available here https://lc.kbze.ba/  

Dr Kasim Spahić, the Assistant Director for Medical Affairs at the Zenica Cantonal Hospital emphasized the benefits of this new software. “The waiting list system is electronic; it is simple, and it facilitates the work of medical staff in booking patient appointments. A patient immediately receives the information about the appointment time and is notified of all eventual changes. This way of putting patients on waiting lists improves communication with the patients and strengthens their confidence in the institution and in the public health care system in general,” said Spahić and added that “This way of booking patient appointments reduces the number of unnecessary visits and travels to the hospital, which is extremely important at the time of the Covid-19 epidemic.”

The software for the public disclosure of the waiting lists has potential to be integrated into the existing solutions in different healthcare institutions. It can be applied in other hospitals too. In the period to come, the software will be presented to other BiH healthcare institutions expected to follow the positive example of the Zenica Cantonal Hospital and integrate the innovative waiting list solution. 

About the project

The project for combating and preventing corruption in healthcare, which is funded by the European Union, aims to contribute to reducing risks of corruption in the health sector in BiH through improvement of transparency, accountability, and integrity in 15 public healthcare institutions in BiH that will serve as examples of good practice for further establishment of anti-corruption systemic preventive solutions in the area of risk corruption. More information is available at: https://euresurs.ba/projekat/izlijecimo-zdravstvo/9