Dominica to implement the Heron Technology Integrated Disease Surveillance and Patient Administration System (PAS)

Media release: April 22, 2005, Markham, Ontario

Heron Technology Corporation (HTC) announces that the Ministry of Health (MOH) of the Commonwealth of Dominica, West Indies, has contracted with HTC to start the computerization of the country's health system. Dominica is a member of CARICOM, and is located in the Eastern Caribbean [co-ordinates: 16 45 N, 62 12 W], and is also a member of the nine-nation OECS (Organization of Eastern Caribbean States).

Dominica is known as "The Nature Island of the Caribbean", and offers some of the best diving locations in the world.

The MOH will commence the computerization of the country's network of three public hospitals and seven clinics at the Princess Margaret Hospital, a 224-bed acute-care facility in the capital city of Roseau. The hospital manages about 9,000 admissions as well as handling over 40,000 visits to the Accident & Emergency Department, annually.

In March of 2003, a senior DMOH official visited Jamaica, where he was part of a larger 8-person PAHO-led delegation. PAHO (Pan American Health Organization) is the Regional Office of the World Health Organization (WHO). The nature of the one-week trip was to review in detail the successful operation of the HTC Integrated Injury/Disease Surveillance System and the PAS (Patient Administration System) implementation, now operational in 11 of the largest hospitals in Jamaica, representing over 70 % of the country's 4,000 hospital beds. Another country that was represented on the same visit was Montserrat, which has since implemented the HTC PAS/Surveillance system.

The PAS implementation in Jamaica was started in 1997, and the Jamaica Injury Surveillance System [JISS] was implemented in 1998/99. The collection of disease data in e-format, or data on any health condition that needs to be monitored at the point of care, permits such data to be converted to meaningful information in the pursuit of being better able to provide enhanced health services. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control), Atlanta, Georgia, in an extensive 57-page report (6 CDC health experts on a 25 person team) in 2002/03 observed that the Jamaica HTC PAS/JISS (Jamaica Injury Surveillance System) could be a model for other developing countries and for developed countries.

The Princess Margaret Hospital will host the new computerized PAS. The PAS modules are: Central Patient Index; Admission, Discharge and Transfer; Outpatient Registration; Accident & Emergency; Patient Billing and Accounts Receivable; Insurance Claims Processing; Workman's Compensation; Health Records Abstracting; Report Writer; Government Statistical Reporting; Agency Reporting; and Integrated Disease Surveillance Reporting. A major regional consideration is to have a standardized electronic Surveillance [Injury, SARS, HIV/AIDS, OHS, TB, etc.] system operational throughout the Caribbean. This will be an important step forward in regional health care.

Heron Technology Corp. can be contacted: by e-mail info@herontech.com, at our website www.herontech.com; by phone at (905) 475-8050; or by fax at (905) 475-5842.