KCUS saves even on paper: Patients are sent to JU Health Centers KS to print their findings!

It is increasingly difficult for patients in Bosnia and Herzegovina on their path from diagnosis to recovery, and the situation is so alarming that they call journalists from hospital rooms, organize protests, and write letters and appeals, writes the Patria News Agency.

Dr. Sebija Izetbegović, General Director of KCUS, is no longer choosing her methods to achieve savings in the largest clinical center in the country, which by all parameters is unfortunately only the largest center, but not the best. Lack of medicines, reagents, sutures, gauze, and hygiene materials is the harsh reality at KCUS. Now, new details are emerging-

Due to savings, patients are finding it increasingly difficult to obtain their findings after examinations at KCUS. As one patient told us, he went from KCUS to the Health Center five times but could not get his findings.

- At the Clinic for Radiology, they told me that they would print my findings at the Health Center and that the attending physician would read them to me. However, at the Health Center, they told me they did not have the resources for such a thing, as they did not have a printer, and that the original findings with the specialist's stamp must be included in my medical record - says the patient, who had to go to the Clinic four times before finally getting the findings.

This case is not the only one. More and more patients are being sent to the Health Centers of KS for findings they had done at KCUS.

- Well, I can't believe they are saving even on paper, and then they are breaking the law. How can an institution where the test was not performed issue my findings? I know they are electronically linked, but until the system is fully operational, the patient should not suffer - our source adds.

Arman Šarkić, spokesperson for JU Health Centers KS, emphasized that doctors at JU Health Center KS, according to the standard of long-standing practice, are obliged to have the patient's original findings in their file.

- Such a document is protected and authoritative according to established legal regulations. The advantage of the IT linkage of the healthcare system in Sarajevo Canton is significant, as every attending physician with an access code can read the findings at the patient's request. This is an example of good medical practice. A printed finding is not complete from a formal aspect, as the printed version does not contain the original signature and stamp of the specialist physician - said Šarkić.

He adds that "the most important fact is that in the IT linkage of the system, every finding is visible, and the doctor, with their expertise, determines the patient's path, and the intention is for the system to be as propulsive as possible in the future with the maximum reduction of administrative mechanisms."

However, it is clear that this IT linkage of the system has numerous shortcomings that patients feel the most when "chasing the original findings."