Punjab Health Line

Overview

In 2010, Punjab was hit by the worst ever epidemic of dengue, affecting over 350,000 people. Due to the unprecedented scale of epidemic, the basic health infrastructure was not ready to address the rapidly changing requirements. The situation was aggravated as people did not even have basic knowledge of this disease. Thousands of citizens started contacting the relevant departments for information and complaints in panic. PITB rose to the challenge and took immediate measures to come up with a much needed solution. A Call Center was established in a record time of 48 hours for counseling the citizens 24/7 and was manned by 150 doctors taking calls on a toll free helpline.

The basic objectives included

• Patient counseling
• Awareness of the preventive measures
• Advise on treatment protocol to health practitioners
• Logging of Fumigation Service requests
• Solid Waste Disposal requests   
• WASA/ Sanitation related requests
• Complaints (Over charging by laboratories, Private hospitals, Govt. hospitals, etc.)    

Project Highlights

• Toll free helpline to entertain inquiries as well as register complaints
• Helpline manned by health professionals
• Real time coordination amongst departments.
• Used for early outbreak detection for epidemics with the help of geographically mapping of patient’s data.
• Real time control of management and efficiency of concerned departments through centralized dashboard.
• A contact center platform used to respond in emergencies e.g. track spurious of PIC drug issue; this system was used to guide the patients and generate required MIS.
• Campaign management tool; e.g. it is also being used to register complaints regarding the ongoing Polio campaign and monitor the same via GIS maps.
• Platform for disease reporting by public, government hospitals and private health practitioners.

Current Standing

Punjab Health Line is still active and entertaining calls regarding various health initiatives

• Total Calls Received - 141,824