Digital records will speed up healthcare, says Cornwall official

WESTERN BUREAU:

THE PLANNED US$8-million (J$1.1billion) spend to build out a stateof-the-art healthcare information system will transform Jamaica’s outdated paper-based medical record infrastructure and expedite patient services, says Dr Delroy Fray, clinical coordinator at the Cornwall Regional Hospital in Montego Bay.

Fray told The Gleaner that the transition to a digital database platform would make the delivery of healthcare service “faster than the Concorde” – the supersonic passenger airplane known for its fantastic speed.

A REVOLUTIONISED SYSTEM

“A lot of doctors in private practice have already gone this way. You don’t need a receptionist, for the most part, anymore,” he explained.

“It’s amazing what this will do … . It is going to revolutionise Cornwall Regional and the entire public healthcare system. Just imagine the ease doctors will have when they see a patient when their medical records are stored electronically.”

Fray urged ministry officials to seek to quickly establish the digitised system particularly because of the fragmented framework of record keeping at Cornwall, which has had to store patient data offsite at Falmouth and Lucea because the multistorey hospital has been deploying staff out of parish because it has been hit by billion-dollar ventilation woes.

Last week, Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton said better days are ahead for the Cornwall Regional Hospital records department, the Inter-American Development Bank is partnering with the Government on the venture.

“Have you ever been into one of these records rooms? If the dust doesn’t get you, then probably something else will,” said Tufton, in reference to the current outdated system, which has been a source of frustration to both patients and medical staff, during the recent groundbreaking for the new Western Children and Adolescent Hospital in Montego Bay.