Information Technology Manager at the BVIHSA, Mikey Farara expressed that change was the biggest challenge at the agency with the introduction of its new card system. Photo:VINO

According to Information Technology Manager, Mike Farara, “there is always… a mindset of change coming.” He added however, that he was proud of the staff in terms of how far they have come since the introduction of the new RioMed powerd system.

“The whole goal now is, whereas, before you weren't given a bill, we’re now capturing that information… the patient [now] gets a bill, it has zero value, but it’s itemised so that they can see there’s a cost associated to your visit.”

He expressed that with this system, once the information is collected, the Authority will be in a position to know how many exempt patients or visits have cost the agency at each of the different locations for different types of services.

He also said that persons were doing ‘extra hours’ to better familiarise themselves with the new software, which is expected to assist the agency in providing medical practitioners and patients with faster and easier access to medical records.

Though complaints have been heard from members of the public on the time it takes to be processed, Farara stated, “unlike before, it’s critical for us to do due diligence in terms of patients.” He added that the ultimate goal is to have one patient [with] one record. The IT Manager noted that this required checks of identification with accurate details being entered and this perhaps leads to the delays.

Patients have also been blamed for adding to issues of double registration within the system after not giving accurate data at the first instance of registration. “There are a lot of different circumstances that can occur,” Farara added.

The next phase is expected to be rolled out from today, February 21, 2013 and should also involve more of the staff, including doctors and nurses. The IT Manager said this will be done on an ‘area by area’ basis.

“Basically the second phase is about the doctors and nurses being able to place orders for the lab and radiology within the system, in addition to that, we’re also going to be implementing e-prescribing in which all prescriptions that the doctors do will be electronic and will be available at pharmacies.”

Farara felt that all systems within government should adopt similar approaches with regard to technology, “basically all systems should be, at some point in time, electronic because of cost savings, efficiency and so forth.” He cautioned however, that all systems looking towards e-government should be careful, “having the system is one thing, integration of the system [though], is key.” He used the example of the pending introduction of the National Health Insurance (NHI) system and said the integration with this system becomes key.

Cards are currently available at Peebles Hospital in the general admission area as well as the Emergency Room (ER) area in addition to the Road Town Clinic and Iris O’Neal clinic in Virgin Gorda.