Centers of Civil Initiatives (CCI) and Tešanj General Hospital today presented transparent patient waiting lists for health services. In order to improve the quality of health services, protect citizens’ right to health and facilitate access to services, electronic waiting lists have been introduced for certain health services in Tešanj General Hospital.
Patients, as users of public health services, often do not have enough information about the internal procedures of health institutions, their capacities and priorities according to which waiting lists are formed. Additionally, the lack of insight into the waiting lists itself contributes to patients’ mistrust in the public health care system and increases dissatisfaction with the services provided. On the other hand, the non-transparency of this process opens up space for corruption and scheduling appointments “over the line”. The introduction of transparent waiting lists allows patients better access to information, while it facilitates the work of healthcare professionals and improves and simplifies communication.
“By introducing transparent waiting lists in the Tešanj General Hospital, we want to contribute to improving the quality of services for patients, reduce the length of waiting for certain health services, increase the level of transparency, and influence the prevention of corruption in the health sector. CCI welcomes health institutions that have introduced this system in their work and calls on other health institutions to follow this positive example and introduce transparent patient waiting lists in order to improve the health system and make citizens’ access to health services simpler and easier,” he pointed out. Asmir Ćilimković, project manager of the Center for Civil Initiatives.
The Tešanj General Hospital has been provided with a suitable software solution, compatible with the existing software in this healthcare facility, for publicly publishing the waiting list of patients for the most important medical examinations and interventions, as chosen by the Tešanj General Hospital management. Currently, waiting lists are published for which there is currently a greater workload with the possibility of expansion to other health services (examinations, surgical interventions, etc.). The display of electronic waiting lists is available on the website: https://lc.bolnicatesanj.ba/
“Our goal has always been to provide quality, timely and accessible healthcare services to all our patients. Transparency allows us to work together to solve existing problems, with full responsibility, with the aim of ensuring that our patients are informed about everything in a timely manner. Because of the above, transparent waiting lists represent a significant step forward towards increasing trust in our work and better communication between the healthcare workers of our institution and patients,” said MD. Omer Bedak, director of Tešanj General Hospital.
Through the established system, patients have the opportunity to monitor their scheduled examination or other health services at any time, and can see in real time if there are major changes in the rescheduling of the scheduled appointment. In this way, the Tešanj General Hospital was enabled to better manage waiting lists, monitor the movement of patients, and analytically and statistically monitor the provision of health services in this institution.
“We developed software for automatic creation and public publication of the waiting list, which, after additional agreements and training of the employees of the Tešanj General Hospital, was operationalized and its use began. Through this system, the transparency and availability of health services to the citizens of Tešanj has been significantly improved, with the fact that it is important to emphasize that the appointment procedure itself is simple and adapted to all citizens”, he pointed out Mersad Avdic, director of the Creativo Center.
One of the best ways to improve the quality of services and prevent corruption is to introduce the highest degree of transparency in the work of health institutions, including the establishment of electronic waiting lists for patients in Tešanj General Hospital. It would be good if this positive example of the Tešanj General Hospital was an incentive for other health institutions throughout BiH, in order to further improve the health care of citizens and restore trust in the public health system in the interest of all citizens.
