The Grand Bahama Health-care System (GBHS) is leading an initiative by the Public Hospitals Authority (PHA) and the Department of Public Health to improve pharmaceutical care in The Bahamas.
On November 1, Eight Mile Rock Clinic will become the pilot site for the implementation of a new $2 million state-of-the-art pharmacy information management software system that will eventually be used in all public pharmacies throughout The Bahamas.
In preparation for the imminent system launch, the Public Hospitals Authority recently conducted end-user training at the Rand Memor-ial Hospital in Grand Baha-ma and held a project fair to introduce the system to the public.
During opening ceremonies for the project fair, Sharon Williams, hospital administrator, GBHS, thanked the Public Hospitals Authority for expressing confidence in Grand Bahama to lead the pharmacy project. Her staff will take up the challenge to pilot the process to perfection.
Philip Gray, consultant and project coordinator for the Pharmacy Information Management Project, said the new General Electric Centricity Software is comparable to systems used in the best hospitals in South Florida and has the potential to revolutionize pharmaceutical practice in the country.
"The vision has been from the outset to create a seamless medication administration process that will ultimately enhance and improve patient outcomes," Gray said. "We have not just embarked on a journey to upgrade top technology but our processes."
He explained that the system will provide many new benefits for patients, including patient literature with every drug dispensed and the creation of a single patient profile with a single medical record for each patient across the health system
Vivienne Lockhart, director of The Bahamas National Drug Agency, said the ability to access patient records at any point in the system – whether in Grand Bahama, Nassau or another island – will enable pharmacists, nurses and physicians to better assist patients in taking care of themselves.
With this tool we will be able to see exactly what is prescribed at Eight Mile Rock or any other clinic, at Princess Margaret Hospital or Sandilands Rehabilitation Centre. The tool will be connected to all of these institutions, and, therefore, if you are in Grand Bahama and decide that you have to go to Nassau to the doctor, the doctor will be able to go into the system to see exactly what medication you are on and any intervention that needs to take place. It will also enable him to see what your laboratory result was, and, therefore, he will be able to better treat you for whatever state or condition you may be in," she said.
Noting that the Government spends more than $10 million each year on drugs for its public pharmacies, Lockhart also said the new software system will allow improved tracking of drugs and inventory control while giving pharmacists more time to counsel patients.
"The system tracks every pill and every injection right down to the last unit; therefore, we would know what is utilized in the total system and actually have a costing placed to whatever we are doing with our drugs ... It will assist the pharmacist because it will alleviate all that counting of pills and let them really get into pharmaceutical care as we're supposed to be doing," she said.
The process of implementation for the General Electric Centricity Pharmacy Infor-mation began almost two years ago. Training has been in progress for more than a year and a half and the system has been specifically modified to meet the needs of The Bahamas Public Phar-macy System which includes both in-patient and out-patient care.
Following the pilot launch at Eight Mile Rock, the system will be implemented in Nassau at the Princess Mar-garet Hospital and Sandi-lands Rehabilitation Centre in January and March 2009, respectively.
