Business View Caribbean - August/September 2018

96 97 movement of patients between the hospi- tal and all our public clinics, and, at a later stage, the private sector. This is, perhaps, one of the most significant transformation- al initiatives in our public health system, because we’re moving from paper-based records to electronic records. “We, at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, went a little bit further, in that we have completed a back-file conversion project which entailed converting the records of patients who had an encounter with the hospital within the past two years into an electronic format. So, when a doctor logs onto the system, using the patient’s unique identifier, he’s going to have at least two years of a patient’s history to begin the assessment of the patient. This is a very big piece for us - we already have telemedi- cine solutions for laboratory investigations and imaging studies available across the hospital so diagnostic investigations can be transmitted electronically. Our doctors can also access results remotely, from their homes, or anywhere at any time, once there is connectivity to our environment. With such an access to patient’s records, they are able to have consultations with other care- givers and give early instructions on the care of patients. “We have expanded the ICT capability to our polyclinic network that is not normally THE QUEEN ELIZABETH HOSPITAL part of our hospital setup. Through telemedicine, they can also see laboratory results and imaging studies which can lead to early di- agnosis and treatment. “On the accreditation side: the hospital has been pursuing a num- ber of international accreditations, including hospital-wide accredita- tion for the past two years. So now, our lab is accredited by the Jamai- can National Agency for Accredita- tion under the ISO-15189 standard for Laboratory Quality Management. Our hospital was recently recertified under UNICEF/WHO’s Baby-Friend- ly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) for the promotion of breast feeding. Our food services was HACCP-certified (Hazard Analysis and Critical Con- trol Points), and boasts of being