DOCTORS at May Pen Hospital in Clarendon say the new electronic health records (EHR) System has significantly improved their ability to provide medical care to victims of mass casualty incidents, including those from the bloody Cherry Tree Lane massacre in August.

Dr Marsharn Golding, a medical officer in the accident and emergency department, shared that before the implementation of the system dubbed e-Care — which digitally captures and stores patient clinical records — health-care workers found it difficult to keep track of their patients during mass casualties.

“We would have to physically be counting persons, one by one, and then you would have to go back sometimes to medical records to see if the person you saw, if [the records] were ordered. Sometimes someone would say, ‘Oh no, there was someone else who had this [patient], or who had that [record],’ ” she told the Jamaica Observer.

Dr Golding said that now, the EHR system allows doctors to create virtual groups for each mass incident — showing all the patients involved, time of arrival at hospital, their stage in the treatment process, and other details about their medical care.

She recounted that on the night of August 11, when victims associated with the Cherry Tree Lane mass killing arrived at May Pen Hospital, the EHR system was helpful in maintaining order and ensuring that no patient got left behind or lost in the system.

Official police reports put the death toll for the mass shooting that night at eight — including three women and a child — with nine others injured and taken to the hospital for treatment.

“For all the persons who were involved in the shooting… we could actually just put all of them in one virtual group rather than having them mixed with everyone else. If we wanted to see everyone in the incident, we knew they are located here and so we could go through them in a more timely manner,” she told the Sunday Observer.

Dr Gary Thompson — a junior general surgeon and system specialist for the Electronic Health Records System and who also treated victims injured during the Cherry Tree Lane massacre — said EHR made it easier for them to provide updates on their status.

“Some of the times when people ask about these patients, they ask about them as a group. For instance, the police officers might want to know what are the types of injuries, and how many persons — it’s easier now to just find everybody in that same [virtual] location,” said Dr Thompson.

Implemented by the Health Systems Strengthening Programme (HSSP), the EHR System is replacing the paper-based method of health record management in 13 health-care facilities in central Jamaica — three hospitals and 10 primary care facilities. It also aims to facilitate the sharing of records among health-care providers in the public health system for a more seamless and collaborative delivery of care.

May Pen Hospital started using the EHR system in January — the first facility in the island to do so — and it is now being utilised by Spanish Town Hospital and six primary health centres. By the end of the year St Ann’s Bay Regional Hospital and four other primary health-care facilities are to be added to the list of places utilising EHR.

The HSSP contracted The Phoenix Partnership in the UK to deliver the system at a cost of US$5 million, with their contractual obligations to Jamaica also including a 15-year support period.

Meanwhile, Dr Golding pointed out another feature of the system she enjoys, which is the ability to access information about her patient’s health status from any section of the hospital.

“Even if I am here right now, I could log on to the emergency room system and still be able to visualise the type of patients, their complaints, and what they are coming in for,” she told the Sunday Observer.

“It removes that fixed position where you had to be in one position to be able to triage a patient. Now, you are able to do that and peruse and see several things happening for the patient from anywhere — once you are logged on to the system,” she added.

Cadine McLeod Davis, a patient who was at the hospital when the Sunday Observer visited recently, described the EHR system as life-saving.

She shared that she ended up at the hospital after suffering a heart attack.

“I came in Thursday night after three [o’clock] and somebody went and register me while the doctor was seeing me. By the time they did the ECG [electrocardiogram] and the other tests, the system was already up to put in the information that they have to see what was happening to me before,” said Davis.

“It is really faster, the treatment was better, and I think it helped to save my life because of the severity of the pain that I was in… It helps save lives and it saves time,” she declared.