On its first meeting of the new budget year, Jimma University Medical Center governing board has reviewed the detail performance of the hospital and discussed the major strength and challenges faced in 2010 E.C, and put way forward for the coming year.
The hospital operated with a total budget of 171.2 million Birr in the fiscal year. The service was rendered with more than 2000 permanent staffs (both technical and administrative) and 659 active beds. More than 400,000 patients were served at emergency, outpatient departments, and various inpatient units in the budget year. The board has also identified and discussed the top ten causes of mortality, morbidity, and admission.
Based on the performance of 2010 E.C, low client satisfaction rate, low hospital reform (EHSTG) implementation status, long emergency room stay, lack of certain specialty services, delays for elective surgical admission, and high bed occupancy rate (93.5%) were some of the major gaps identified.
Shortage of essential medical supplies and drugs, frequent water and electricity interruptions, critical budget deficit in certain critical program areas such as health professional duty, low staff motivation and commitment, high clinical staff attrition, lack of highly qualified physicians and certain professions such radiology and anesthesia, poor referral system, and lengthy procurement system were reported to be the major challenges to achieving hospital’s vision and missions. It was also reported that the hospital management has tried to use different means to tackle some of the lingering problems through different means. Purchase of medical supplies through open bidding, working with local and international partners to obtain medical equipment and supply, and prioritizing important program areas were major interventions to deal with these problems.
A new biomedical workshop was established during the year with support of Korea Foundation for International Healthcare (KOFIH), and different medical equipment worth of $972,000(26 million ETB) were purchased for JUMC and nearby facilities with the help of Korea International Corporation Agency (KOICA). The hospital has also extended its collaboration with new oversees partners such as Erasmus Medical Center (The Netherlands), Soroca Medical Center (Israel) and Apollo Hospitals Group (India) were new frontiers in this fiscal year.
The board thorough discussed on the major gaps and challenges and has forwarded means to improve on what has been achieved. Engaging all hospital staffs through meetings and forum discussion, working with and affiliating nearby health facilities, and widening international collaborations were strategies put forward by the board.
The hospital has highlighted on new services to start in the coming budget year: radiotherapy services, MRI, hemodialysis, cardiac catheterization services, oxygen plant, implementation of standard operating procedure (SOP), training and recruitment of medical doctors in different subspecialty areas, and commencement of EMR are major agendas of the hospital for the New Year.
Finally, the governing board approved its own annual plan to closely follow hospital process and support the hospital management to realize the hospitals vision of becoming world-class academic medical center by 2025.
