WWW.WESTSHOREPRIVATEHOSPITAL.COM WESTSHORE MEDICAL PRIVATE HOSPITAL TECH PRESCRIPTION FOR TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO’S HEALTHCARE CHALLENGES
TECH PRESCRIPTI AND TOBAGO’S HE CHALLENGES WESTSHORE MEDICAL PRIVATE HOSPITAL AT A GLANCE WESTSHORE MEDICAL PRIVATE HOSPITAL WHAT: A 50-bed private hospital undergoing digital transformation from paper-based systems to AI-powered healthcare delivery WHERE: T rinidad and Tobago WEBSITE: www.westshoreprivatehospital.com DIGITAL HEAL HOW ONE INN 1 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 12, ISSUE 06
ION FOR TRINIDAD EALTHCARE A REGIONAL CROSSROADS Caribbean healthcare is standing at the same fork in the road that banking and telecoms faced a decade ago: go digital or fall behind. Ageing populations, stubbornly high and rising rates of diabetes and hypertension, with medicalcost inflation running above ten percent each year (Mercer Marsh 2024) have stretched every public and private facility from Port of Spain to Bridgetown. Yet basic enablers—electronic health records, integrated patient portals, AI-driven monitoring, image diagnostics—remain very rare. LTH’S TIPPING POINT IN TRINIDAD & TOBAGO: NOVATION-FOCUSED EXECUTIVE IS RE-SHAPING CARE. 2 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 12, ISSUE 06
ONE CHANGE AGENT Enter Stephen King, Chief Strategy and Business Development Officer presently emersed in Trinidadbased health-services who believes that the country—and, by extension, the Eastern Caribbean— can leapfrog this technology gap the way mobile payments leapfrogged fixed-line banking. King, a former chief-operations officer turned digitalstrategy lead, is spearheading a programme that swaps paper charts for open-source EMRs, pushes diagnostics into the home via connected devices, and re-imagines insurance so prevention gets paid for up-front. “We’ve spent 20 years treating chronic illness only after it lands in emergency,” King says. “Digital tools let us flip that script—screen early, guide patients online, and share the data so insurers actually save money.” FROM PORTAL TO PLATFORM Instead of launching another static informational website, King’s team is building what he calls a “patient-centric health platform.” Backed by a secure cloud stack, the portal asks visitors to start with symptoms, not specialty lists, then walks them through risk-factor questionnaires tailored to the region’s top Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) burdens. The aim is to incorporate AI engine triages each user to the right testing bundle or tele-consult; results flow straight into a personal health vault of Electronic Health Records patient can carry to any public-sector clinic, reducing time and cost to patients of double testing. The Inter-American Development Bank estimates that fifteen percent of deaths in low- and middleincome countries could be prevented through such digital pathways. King’s roadmap aims higher: move the needle on late-stage cancer and uncontrolled diabetes that currently drive the lion’s share of catastrophic claims. A LIVING LABORATORY To prove the model works, King launched a company owned Family Medicine Clinic early last year— breaking from the tenant-doctor structure that dominates Caribbean private practice. There he rolled out OpenEMR (chosen for its active opensource community) and piloted speech-to-text notetaking, remote point-of-care diagnostics, and virtual nurse check-ins. RETHINKING INSURANCE Perhaps King’s boldest move is a wellness approach developing with a major regional insurer. Instead of reimbursing only when disease strikes, the rider funds a cottage of wellness diagnostics with lab panels and risk-aligned tele-health coaching. It is early in the life and growth, but actuarial runs 3 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 12, ISSUE 06 WESTSHORE MEDICAL PRIVATE HOSPITAL
suggest a twenty-five percent drop in late-stage treatment costs—savings the insurer can share back to employers. TECHNOLOGY THAT PAYS FOR ITSELF King admits the Caribbean’s capital budgets often stall big-bang technology upgrades, so he is negotiating subscription-based deals—turning ultrasound machines, cloud analytics and even patient monitors into “pay-per-use” services that stay evergreen. “We can’t buy our way to world-class care in one cheque,” he argues. “But we can rent the innovation cycle—stay current, spread the cost, and prove ROI every quarter.” A PERSONAL DRIVER The crusade is more than professional. King’s own prostate-cancer journey exposed the shortage of minimally invasive options, robotic or proton radiant treatment, in local hospitals. Watching nurses’ hand-write vitals every hour convinced him that electronic vital history, with predictive monitoring— commonplace in the U.S. and Singapore—belongs high on the basic agenda. Premier hospitals of the Caribbean face an 4 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 12, ISSUE 06
existential choice: embrace digital transformation or risk obsolescence. At Westshore Medical Private Hospital in Trinidad, Stephen King embodies this urgency.The 61-year-old Chief Operations and New Business Development Officer describes himself as “not the typical baby boomer,” and his ambitious plans prove it. While the region grapples with a 10-year lag in digital health fundamentals, King is architecting a radical departure from traditional hospital operations. “It’s interesting for me that where I sit is between the technology business and developing new businesses and services,” says King, whose title change in 2024 signals Westshore’s strategic pivot. “Recently the board changed my title from Chief Operations Officer to Chief Operations and Business Development Officer, which is important because it’s a very different focus. Instead of looking at the facilities, we are really looking at the business, its efficiencies, systems, and how to differentiate West Shore. Services, patient experience and Outcomes” The hospital’s current state reveals the magnitude of change ahead; there is a high dependency on paperbased systems.“EMR,online scheduling,telemedicine, nothing, zero,” King states bluntly about the private and public hospital technological infrastructure after more than five decades of operation. This gap becomes more striking considering Trinidad and Tobago’s relatively high financial inclusion rate of 80.8 percent, well above the Latin American and Caribbean average, and the government’s establishment of a dedicated Ministry of Digital Transformation in 2021. FROM PAPER TO ONLINE PORTAL West Shore’s digital transformation centers on an ambitious portal that reimagines patient 5 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 12, ISSUE 06 WESTSHORE MEDICAL PRIVATE HOSPITAL
engagement. Rather than a conventional website, King envisions a sophisticated platform hosted portal that fundamentally changes how patients interact with healthcare services. “go to a website, any of the hospital websites, I really don’t know what may be wrong with me, and you are presented with a list of endocrinologists, cardiac surgeons, Oncology and more, it’s not patient centric,” King explains. “What are your symptoms? That’s a good starting point. So, what I’m trying to do is build this. When you come to our digital portal, you are going to be educated, you are going to establish your risk factors along the chronic diseases of Trinidad and the region—diabetes, hypertension, high blood pressure.” The portal is more than a technological advancement. With the Inter-American Development Bank estimating that 15 percent of deaths in low and middle-income countries could be prevented through digital healthcare transformation, King’s approach addresses both immediate patient needs and systemic healthcare challenges. The platform will integrate artificial intelligence tools for risk assessment, pushing patients toward appropriate care pathways based on their profiles. “The main issue at this stage is using the web portal to educate the patient, bring business, and of course make electronic health records available to the person should they have to go to public healthcare afterwards or another specialist,” says King.“A lot of 6 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 12, ISSUE 06
people don’t take their records with them, and they end up spending more money redoing things that were done previously. Can’t remember when they did the CT scan, so they went under another one.” Beyond basic digitization, the clinic anchors West Shore’s expansion into telemedicine and home healthcare services. King’s vision includes remote point-of-care diagnostics and traveling nurses equipped with portable devices, innovations particularly relevant as the Caribbean population ages and chronic disease management becomes increasingly critical. “Now that I’ve got that hub, I’m looking for things like breast density diagnostics for breast cancer, which does not need a radiologist in any form or fashion,” says King. “Those types of new diagnostic tools that the clinic can use are going to be another differentiating factor.” RESHAPING HEALTHCARE ECONOMICS King’s most innovative initiative involves partnering with Insurance Companies, create a co-branded wellness policy that flips traditional insurance models. Rather than waiting for illness, the partnership emphasizes preventive care to reduce late-stage treatment costs. The partnership addresses a critical gap in Caribbean healthcare financing. While Trinidad and Tobago historically spent only 3.75 percent of GDP on healthcare compared to the regional average of 5 percent, the wellness approach could significantly reduce costs for both insurers and patients. The policy would include annual executive medicals, blood tests, clinic consultations, and specialist referrals, all aimed at early detection. International partnerships will also fuel West Shore’s transformation, some introduced through the British Commission Trade Desk, has become a key advisor, connecting King to global health technology innovations. “they go to all the conferences and exhibitions. This helps me quite a lot, giving me free guidance,” says King. During a scholarship trip to India, King discovered advanced telehealth systems and point-of-care devices that could transform Caribbean healthcare delivery. 7 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 12, ISSUE 06 WESTSHORE MEDICAL PRIVATE HOSPITAL
AI-POWERED PATIENT MONITORING King’s experience as a patient at Westshore revealed critical gaps in the hospital’s technological infrastructure. During his prostate surgery recovery, he watched nurses manually record vital signs every hour, a practice that belongs in the past, not in a premier Caribbean hospital. “I realized that the patient monitors were low level. They had to come in and write down blood pressure, literally come in and write down everything every hour,” King recalls.“But you’ve got patient monitoring systems that keep track of that. So you just download a file.” His solution involves implementing centralized monitoring systems from General Electric and Mindray that incorporate artificial intelligence modules.These systems represent a significant leap forward, particularly given that only 18.7 percent of US hospitals had adopted any form of AI by 2022, placing Westshore at the forefront of regional innovation. “GE and Mindray are using AI modules to be predictive. It will be able to look at many different variables and see them change where a human just can’t compute that,” King explains.“It can predict you are going to have a crash, not wait till it is crashing. That sort of early warning software embedded stuff excited me.” The financial model for this technology highlights King’s innovative approach. Rather than large capital expenditures, he’s negotiating subscription-based partnerships that ensure continuous upgrades. “As GE’s equipment advances, we advance. After three years, they changed the equipment. We’re still paying them a monthly fee,” he says. “That’s a different partnership model with GE that I’m trying to achieve. In Trinidad, that is not the normal model.” PERSONAL EXPERIENCE DRIVES PROFESSIONAL INNOVATION King’s push for technological advancement gained personal urgency following his 2024 prostate cancer diagnosis. The experience exposed him to both the limitations of traditional invasive surgery 8 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 12, ISSUE 06
and the unrealized potential for minimally invasive procedures in Trinidad and Tobago. “There was a spinoff because the scarring needed to be removed and blocked my urinary tract. So, I recognize that there’s a dependency at most hospitals on invasive surgeries,” King reflects. “That spun me into researching what are the alternatives. And in Trinidad and Tobago, there are very few noninvasive or minimally invasive surgeries happening, which surprised me.” His research revealed a troubling pattern. Despite evidence showing comparable outcomes, surgeons rarely discuss noninvasive options with patients. “The noninvasive surgeries, I looked them up and they’re just as good. However, the surgeons aren’t going to tell you that,” he states. “There’s a lot of negatives to invasive surgery, especially when it comes to the prostate.” The experience reinforced King’s determination to modernize Westshore’s approach to care delivery. His interest in robotic surgery, sparked through introduction to CMR’s British robotic systems, represents part of this vision. While cost considerations have temporarily shelved the robotic surgery initiative, King maintains the connections and continues exploring alternatives. “Frank actually came down here, did a presentation for all our doctors. They were very happy,” King says. “The difficulty was the cost of equipment. So that’s on the back burner, but I still have that network with Frank, and he introduces me to other people and keeps growing depending on our interest.” This personal journey through the healthcare system as both executive and patient provides King with unique insights into the transformation Westshore needs. 9 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 12, ISSUE 06 WESTSHORE MEDICAL PRIVATE HOSPITAL
focus, Stephen, focus,’” King recounts. “My projects are so wide, they are all interconnected. But he is saying “focus on what you can achieve over the next three months.” King has developed a roadmap that balances immediate wins with transformational change. The family medicine clinic continues growing its clientele through targeted digital marketing campaigns. Plans for specialized services, including diabetic wound care facilities, align with Trinidad’s chronic disease burden. The co-branded insurance product with Guardian Group awaits final approvals. “I tend to be very busy and easily distracted,” King acknowledges with characteristic candor about his working style. Yet his energy and vision position Westshore at the vanguard of Caribbean healthcare transformation.As the region races to close its digital health gap, King’s initiatives offer inspiration for private hospitals seeking relevance in an increasingly connected world. THE ROAD AHEAD: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES Despite King’s ambitious vision, implementing change at a 23-year-old institution presents significant challenges.“I don’t like bureaucracy at all. I’m used to a smaller outfit that makes decisions and moves, not asking permission,‘What do you think?’” King admits. “Because a lot of the time they don’t know what to think. It really is how you pitch it to them, which is sort of counterproductive because the bureaucracy isn’t a value-add. It’s a hindrance all along the way.” The board chairman has urged King to focus on achievable short-term goals rather than his expansive long-term vision. “The chairman says to me, ‘You are very eloquent. You put across ideas, and you seem to be able to bring someone that has no idea of technology along with you.’ He says, ‘But PREFERRED VENDOR/PARTNER n GMD Healthcare www.gmdhealthcare.com GMD Healthcare is specialized in products of Diagnostic Imaging, Ultrasound, anesthesia and service support in the healthcare industry. Is part of Global Médica, a multinational group with operations in the Caribbean, which for more than 39 years has been an authorized distributor of General Electric Healthcare. The Support and Technical Service team forms the complement of our entire advice and sale process. 10 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 12, ISSUE 06
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