For the Garki Hospital, Abuja, it is another giant stride towards efficient service delivery to its teeming patients, with the recent deployment of state-of-the-art software – EaseFlow and the introduction of a VIP clinic for patients to enhance its operations.

According to the Medical Director of the hospital, Dr Adamu Onu, the initiatives are designed to streamline patient flow, reduce waiting time and elevate the standard of care available to thousands of patients from the FCT and adjoining states.

Onu said the EaseFlow queue management software, developed in-house has helped to alleviate congestion and reduce waiting time at service points in the hospital. He listed these departments to include the radiology department where the tool has helped in ensuring a smoother and more efficient service delivery for patients.

He said: “This innovative solution reflects Garki Hospital’s commitment to leveraging technology for the benefit of our patients. We are desirous of an efficient patient flow management, to reduce the stress of waiting and encourage more transparency.”

Introduced six months ago by the hospital’s ICT experts, Onu stressed that the software has three modules on scheduling appointment, radiology queue management system, and theatre procedures.

Similarly, the Garki Hospital also introduced the VIP clinic, which underscores the hospital’s dedication to offering personalised care to individuals.
Designed to provide premium healthcare experience, the quick-service clinic aims at offering unique services by prioritising the preferences of patients and ensuring their comfort and privacy.
With these initiatives, Garki Hospital seeks to re-reaffirm its commitment to healthcare innovation by setting new standards for excellence in patient care and comfort.
Recounting on their experiences with these products, a number of patients have expressed gratitude and satisfaction, describing the introduction of the EaseFlow in particular as a unique innovation for a facility committed to reducing waiting time and promoting patients’ satisfaction.

“The patients are very happy with it. They love the transparency and how it improves the flow while waiting for their turn, especially in the radiology department. We try to ensure that as a hospital, we are responsive to the needs and requests of our patients,’ said Dr Onu.

One of the patients, Mr Japeth Ibe who was waiting for his turn at the radiology clinic described the innovation as satisfying, “It is truly remarkable to see this in Garki Hospital because patients no longer have to wait till their names are called. Once you see the number on the screen, you proceed to get attended to by your doctor.”

A security personnel at the hospital, Blessing, corroborated that patients no longer wait too long unlike before when they experienced the challenges of control crowd. “Right now, all that needs to be done is for patients to see their names on the screen and then proceed to see their healthcare provider,” she explained.

However, a pregnant patient, Bilkis, who came for ante-natal consultation suggested an improvement on what she perceived as a seeming delay in updating names on the screen, saying that was necessary to further reduce the waiting time for patients.

Since it was conceived as Nigeria’s first healthcare facility operated on the public-private-partnership initiative in 2007, the FCT-owned Garki Hospital has grown to be a hospital of choice in the FCT and beyond.

Operated by Nisa Premier Hospital, it is presently a multi-specialty hospital, equipped with state-of-the-art facilities and parades a wide range of expertise and skilled personnel providing specialised and general in-patient and out-patient services.

The healthcare provider has since become a shining success story of public-private-partnership in the sector necessary for the Federal Government to replicate nationwide in addressing the widening gap in Nigerians’ medical needs.

The CMD explained that the hospital has covered the gap between quality healthcare and the people due to the success of the PPP arrangement that has enabled the hospital to offer premium health services at affordable cost.

Since assuming the operation of the hospital, Onu said an estimated three million patients have been attended to in a feat that has redefined healthcare services, especially in government-owned facilities.

This, he noted has helped Nigerians to proudly receive specialised care in the country rather than going abroad due to the excellent services offered by the hospital to patients with genetic diagnosis of sickle cell disorders, 24-hour dialysis service, dialysis for hepatitis B positive patients and HIV positive patients, open heart surgeries, with more than 40 cases of valvular repairs of septal defects and aneurysm.

Head, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Dr. Lawrence Ezeogu, an obstetrician gynaecologist, said the department has gone beyond the routine antenatal care and basic gynaecological operations.

Ezeogu said the department now safely delivers premature babies weighing less than one kilogramme and has evolved from just basic fertility management to providing low–cost In-Vitro Fertilisation at the Garki Hospital by successfully delivering 1,224 babies from 2014 to date through the IVF procedure.

Similarly, the Garki Hospital has acquired modern equipment to handle highly specialised gynaecological and laparoscopic surgeries while also enhancing its services to include advanced diagnostic aid, CT scan, advanced MRI with state-of- the- art technologies for monitoring cases like fibroid scan, among others.

In October 2019, Garki Hospital became the first in sub-Saharan Africa to carry out Sleeve Gastrostomy, a surgical weight-loss procedure performed by inserting small instruments through multiple small incisions in the upper abdomen.

These feats already recorded by the hospital has no doubt positioned it as the hub of Nigeria’s tertiary medical facility for Nigerians seeking top-notch healthcare and a reference point on the need to stay with Nigeria rather than seeking medical tourism through which the nation’s resources have continued to cry for life.