Patients to benefit from digital X-rays at Diamond Hospital
…PAC system to be implemented by 14 hospitals by end of year
GPHC Chairman and Advisor to the Health Minister, Dr Leslie Ramsammy
In another effort to advance the digitisation of healthcare in Guyana, the Diamond Diagnostic Centre, which serves persons along the East Bank Demerara (EBD) corridor, today is commissioning a digital X-ray machine to better treat patients.
Advisor to the Health Minister, Dr Leslie Ramsammy made this announcement on Friday during the launch of the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system at the Georgetown Public Health Corporation (GPHC).
“A patient who will have an X-ray at the Diamond regional hospital will have a real-time interpretation of the images by a radiologist at GPHC utilising the Picture Archiving and Communications (PAC) system,” Dr Ramsammy said.
Through a continued partnership with radiology non-profit organisation, RAD-AID International, GPHC has been implementing the PAC system for several years now in an aim of enhancing their radiology health services and capabilities.
PAC is a medical imaging technology that allows healthcare professionals to access and store electronic medical images and reports quickly, easily and from any location, thereby eliminating the need to manually file and send sensitive patient information.
Dr Ramsammy expressed that by the end of this year, 14 hospitals will be implementing the PAC system, with more than 60 per cent of X-rays done by these hospitals to be read by radiologists at GPHC.
“We are transforming the [health] sector from one that made minimal use of digital technology to [one] that fully optimises digital technology in improving healthcare in our country,” he added.
According to him, the PAC system will also have the capacity to be linked to the EMR system.
Newly introduced into GPHC, the EMR system allows for the digitisation of patient health records to allow for improved efficiency, and reduced wait times and errors when managing patients.
Since July, this system has been implemented in the Internal Medicine department, with plans already underway to enter it into the Accident and Emergency department next.
The overall goal of the hospital is to implement the seamless patient management system across the hospital, though a specific timeline for doing so has not been imposed.
