JAMAICA: FIRST With standardised hospital system

Canada Focus
The Gleaner (NA)

February 7-13, 2002

TORONTO
Jamaica is now the first country in the world to implement a standardised electronic patient admiinistration system for all hospitals and clinics, says the Canadian firm that has helped the country score this "world first in healthcare."

The nationwide standardisation will enable the government and various healthcare agencies to accurately track illnesses and injuries for the entire population, said Ron Hebert, Chairman of Heron Technology Corporation, based in Markham, northeast of Toronto. Hebert told The Weekly Gleaner last Friday that Jamaica was about ten years ahead of Canada in the important area of "standardised" information technology (IT) systems at all points of care throughout the country. "This permits the exchange of data, not available in Canada, or elsewhere," Hebert added.

He said he was taking a team to Jamaica shortly to train people to use the system, and that in about June representatives from several countries would visit Jamaica to observe the system in operation.

Hebert said Jamaica recently signed off on Phase II of the successful implementation of the system, by his company, and that the Patient Administration System is now operational in 11 government hospitals, consisting of 2,500 beds.

Heron Technology Corporation has been contracted to complete the implementation in all 23 Government hospitals, with 4,700 beds in total, and some 300 clinics. The project is partly funded by the World Bank/ Inter-America Development Bank. A news release says the Jamaica project is the world body's first successful, fully operational health care information technology implementation. The Patient Administration System used in Jamaica comprises nine modules: Central Patient Index, Community Central Patient Index for the entire country, Admit/Discharge/Transfer, Outpatients Registration, Accident and Emergency; Health Records Abstracting for the International Classification of Disease (ICD- 10) coding, Billing and Accounts Receivable; Surveillance for Injuries and Illnesses (such as asthma), and Report Writer.

In development since 1998, the Jamaica Injury Surveillance System project involved close collaboration between the Ministry of Health, the US Centres for Disease Control [CDC], Atlanta, Georgia, the University Hospital of the West Indies, Caribbean Epidemiology Centre [CAREC], Trinidad & Tobago, and Heron Technology Corporation.

Hebert said the project is being undertaken with close attention to the health care budget of Jamaica because Heron s products and services are priced according to the GDP per capita of each country.

"Because the desktop devices are thin-clients, and the operating system is the open source Linux, we level the economic playing field for all countries interested in computerising their health care systems," he said.

Cornwall Regional Hospital, Montego Bay, one of Jamaicas
23 public hospitals under the standardised project.