About
project HEAL
The Emergency health care system in Ghana are still in the developmental stages. The lack of fully structured emergency care setup has led to increased morbidity and mortality among all types of cases especially in the rural settings. In addition, not all health facilities are well resourced to handle all types of emergencies and cases. Time lost in transferring patients across hospitals reduces their chances of survival. Hence, a need to classify hospitals based on a standard criterion.
The Health Emergency Acuity Levels Project (Project HEAL) is a project aimed at developing a robust system that can be used to classify hospitals based on their available resources (e.g. human, equipment and procedures) and can easily be used by the emergency medical (ambulance) services to transport patients to the appropriate hospitals based on the medical needs of the patient. This is being done by developing a ranking system of hospitals based on their available human and medical resources and procedures to handle trauma, surgical, medical, paediatric and obstetrics/gynaecology emergencies.
The system of ranking is based on a expert review of all the relevant resources and scored independently using a Delphi approach. The total scores will be used to develop a checklist for which hospitals can independently administer to determine their level of health care provision based on specific specialization and over score. These can then inform the emergency care services, referral facilities, health workers and the general public on which facility provides which level of care.
This project is being supported by the Emergency Medicine Society of Ghana (EMSOG) in collaboration with the Swiss Embassy in Ghana. This project has received approval from the Ghana Health Service Ethical Review Committee (GHS-ERC 015/07/20).
It is hoped that this project will help to rank hospitals in Ghana based on their resources so that emergency medical (ambulance) services, referrals and the general public can transport patients to appropriate health facilities to receive the care needed in a timely manner.
DELPHI
The Delphi technique
The Delphi technique is a method of collecting opinion on a particular research question. It is based on the premise that pooled intelligence enhances individual judgement and captures the collective opinion of a group of experts without being physically assembled. The conventional Delphi uses a series of questionnaires to generate expert opinion in an anonymous fashion and takes place over a series of rounds. The technique is becoming a popular strategy that straddles both quantitative and qualitative realms. Issues that are critical to its validity are the development of the questionnaire; definition of consensus and how to interpret non-consensus; criteria for and selection of the expert panel; sample size; and data analysis. The authors used the Delphi technique to assist with making recommendations regarding education and training for medical practitioners working in district hospitals in South Africa. The objective of this Delphi was to obtain consensus opinion on content and methods relating to the maintenance of competence of these doctors. They believe the experience gained from their work may be useful for other health science education researchers wishing to use the Delphi method.
Source: Marietjie R de Villiers 1, Pierre J T de Villiers, Athol P Kent
PMID: 16332558 DOI: 10.1080/13611260500069947
Links for further information
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13611260500069947?journalCode=imte20
https://youtu.be/GN6B8hgjQcw
https://research.phoenix.edu/content/research-methodology-group/delphi-method
TEAM MEMBERS
Name: Sesinam Dagadu
Qualifications: MEng in Engineering and Business Management
Institution Affiliation: TinyDavid Limited
Short Bio:
Sesinam is the founder of SnooCODE – the company behind SnooCODE RED. He also has a past building mission critical, life-saving equipment in the automotive and military sectors for Jaguar Land Rover and the US and British Militaries respectively.
Expertise for the Project: Technology Development
Name: Dr. Joseph Bonney
Qualifications: BSc Human Biology, MBChB, MPH, MScDM, MGCPS
Institution Affiliation 1 : Emergency Medicine Specialist/ Komfort Anokye Teaching Hospital, Kumasi
Institution Affiliation 2 : Research Fellow/ Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine, KNUST, Kumasi
Short Bio:
Emergency Medicine Specialist under the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons. He holds a Master’s in Public Health, specialized in Health Service Planning and Management from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and a Master in Disaster Medicine through the European Masters for Disaster Medicine Program from the University of Eastern Piedmont with an MSc DM. Currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Eastern Piedmont in the International Doctoral Program in Global Health, Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Medicine.
Expertise for the Project: Emergency Medicine, mHealth, Disaster Medicine
Name: Sonia Cobbald
Qualifications: BSc Statistics, MSc Statistics, DPDM
Institution Affiliation: Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital
Short Bio:
8 years of working experience as researcher, statistician and cancer registrar. Proven ability to manage projects and accurately analyze data. Excellent skills of end to end processing and a good team player with excellent communication skills.
Expertise for the Project: Statistician.
Name: Dr. Nana Serwaa Agyeman Quao
Qualifications: MBChB, MGCS
Institution Affication 1: Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital
Short Bio: Dr. Quao is an Emergency Physician at the Accident and Emergency Centre, Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra. She is currently an MPH candidate at the School of Public health, University of Ghana.
Expertise for the Project: To advise and assist on issues related to emergency care in the country relevant to the project. She is also involved in the design and implementation stages of the project.
Name: Dr. Paa Kobina Forson
Qualifications: MBChB, MGCS, MPH
Institution Affiliation 1: Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital
Institution Affiliation 2 : Emergency Medical Society of Ghana
Short Bio:
Dr. Forson is an Emergency Physician at the Accident and Emergency Centre, Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), Kumasi and the St. Patrick’s Hospital, Offinso. He is currently pursuing a fellowship in emergency medicine at KATH.
Expertise for the Project: With his specialty in emergency medicine, he offers advice and assistance on issues related to emergency care in the country relevant to the project.