Towards ensuring fluidity in service and financial accountability, the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital (RSUTH) is gradually going cashless in financial transactions.
Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the hospital, Dr. Friday E. Aaron, who made this disclosure in an exclusive interview, explained that going cashless is part of efforts to develop RSUTH to world standard in line with what is required of a Teaching Hospital.
“We are going cashless step-by-step, and we are starting with the USD”, he stated.
The USD, he explained, requires that “when you have an account, you can use your phone. With your patient ID, and bank code, you can make payment.
“Once you make payment, it is configured to our system. It shows you’ve paid. If you so fund your wallet, you’ll not get receipt. But if you receive service, you’ll get a receipt, so you’ll know how much is left in your wallet for each service rendered “, he stated.
Cashlessness, according to Dr. Aaron, has ensured that staff come less in contact with the finance of the hospital, thereby enhancing prudence.
“The good thing about cashlessness is that anybody can pay into a patient’s wallet from any part of the world, and all the patient needs to do is to access treatment with his/her patient ID”, he said.
The CMD explained further that in the same vein, the hospital is also going paperless.
“In some departments, we are doing e-consultation. That means we’ve gone paperless in those departments”, he said.
Such departments, he revealed, include some parts of Family Medicine, where patients can make consultations from the comfort of their homes, or any part of the country/world.
“You consult, and it is sent to the system, and they can send it to the laboratory. Here, they see what to do for the person for whom the request was made.
“When everything is done, they move back to the system, so you (patient) can see it”, he explained.

By: Sogbeba Dokubo