Ghana must stop measuring healthcare success by number of patients treated – CHAG Executive Director

The Executive Director of the Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG), Dr Peter Yeboah, is calling for a fundamental shift in how Ghana measures the success of its healthcare system, arguing that the number of patients treated should no longer be the primary measure of performance. He believes healthcare providers and policymakers must focus on whether patients are recovering, chronic diseases are being effectively managed, and medical interventions are producing meaningful improvements in people’s health.

Speaking to JoyNews on the sidelines of Queen Máxima of the Netherlands’ visit to Manna Mission Hospital in Accra, Dr Yeboah said Ghana must move away from measuring healthcare performance largely by the volume of services delivered to assessing the actual value patients receive. “The key paradigm shift today, if you ask me to summarise, is a shift from the volume of healthcare services to the value we derive from them.

We should not be too fixated on the number or volume of services people utilise. Rather, we should ask ourselves who is benefiting and what real benefits are coming out of those services,” he explained. Dr Yeboah questioned whether increased hospital attendance and medical consultations necessarily translated into better health outcomes, particularly for patients living with chronic diseases.

“Has it led to better control of hypertension, diabetes and other ailments?” he asked. According to him, healthcare systems must be assessed not simply by how many patients receive treatment, but by whether those treatments improve their conditions and prevent complications. Shifting from volume to value Dr Yeboah said the adoption of Value-Based Care offers Ghana an opportunity to rethink healthcare delivery by placing patient outcomes at the centre of medical services.

The approach focuses on measuring the effectiveness of treatment, the quality of care patients receive and the extent to which healthcare interventions improve their conditions. He explained that Value-Based Care seeks to establish a stronger relationship between the services healthcare providers deliver and the actual benefits patients derive from them.

“Value-based healthcare is now acting as a vital bridge between service provision on one side and improved patient outcomes, quality and efficiency on the other,” he said. He maintained that the approach could also help improve clinical performance and patient experiences while strengthening the overall healthcare system. CHAG, in collaboration with PharmAccess Ghana and the National Health Insurance Authority, has been involved in piloting Value-Based Care at selected health facilities, including Manna Mission Hospital.

The initiative places emphasis on continuous care and monitoring, particularly for patients living with hypertension and diabetes, rather than relying exclusively on the number of consultations or treatments provided. Dr Yeboah believes the lessons from these interventions could help establish a more effective framework for assessing healthcare performance across the country.

“We are looking at how we can learn from the pilot experiences we have had and progressively scale them up across the entire healthcare sector,” he explained. He maintained that the ultimate measure of healthcare success must be the improvement patients experience as a result of the services they receive. “We are trying to ensure that value-based healthcare helps all of us derive the benefits we are supposed to derive from healthcare services,” he said.