GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC—The Ministry of Health has signed a US$3.3 million contract with RioMed Limited, a UK company, to develop and implement an Electronic Health Record (HER) system.
The contract was signed at the Ministry of Health’s Office earlier this week by the Permanent Secretary Malcolm Watkins and the Managing Director of RioMed, Mario Mohammed.
It was done in the presence of Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Country Representative Lorena Solorzano Salazar, and the British High Commissioner to Guyana, Jane Miller.
Anthony said the IDB-funded project will significantly improve patients’ access to their health records while addressing many of the challenges in the existing paper-based system.
“One of the things we want to do with this system is to make sure that every single citizen of our country would have a unique identifier, and with that unique identifier, when they come to the public health system, they can use that, they can access their health record, that can be done at a very short time because right now, despite our best effort through the manual record, we still have to search and sometimes all the paper is not in one place, somebody misplace it in some file, it becomes problematic, and somebody is sitting there, waiting for hours sometimes, that’s what we want to remove,” the Health Minister explained.
Once implemented, patients can also make doctor’s appointments via smartphones.
According to the Health Ministry, the legislative framework has already been established to safeguard patient information, with stiff penalties for breach of information.
Healthcare professionals can be fined a minimum of US$20M for disclosing or sharing a patient’s health record, while companies can face penalties as high as $100M.
The Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC) is piloting the project.
The hospital’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Robbie Rambarran, said the project will improve the quality and delivery of patient care.
“Implementing this EHR System will enable us to transition from a traditional paper-based process to a streamlined digital solution that empowers our clinicians, improves patient outcomes, and enhances the overall experience for everyone who entrusts us with their care,” Rambarran said.
It was explained that at Georgetown Hospital, there are separate records for the various clinics and departments, and the Electronic Health Record System would help to streamline the hospital’s records, allowing for easier access to patients’ records.
The IDB Country Representative said the “transformative project” is essential to ensuring that Toyanese have high-quality healthcare.
“The EHR implementation represents more than just an investment in the digital infrastructure system. It is a new way of interacting within the health sector, within the health services, how we can provide better services to the people,” the IDB Country Representative said.
She said the IDB is cognizant of the importance of having the health systems work in unison at the primary level right up to the national level while maximizing the efficient use of available resources and providing the necessary healthcare throughout the 10 Administrative Regions.
The Managing Director of RioMed Limited, Mario Mohammed, explained that through the project, RioMed intends to improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of healthcare delivery in Guyana.
He said the system augurs well for both patients and the healthcare system. He said RioMed is committed to successfully completing and implementing the EHR System.
The project is expected to be developed and implemented within 18 months.
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