CURAÇAO MEDICAL CENTER
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CURAÇAO MEDICAL CENTER PROVIDING THE BEST HEALTHCARE On November 15th, 2019, after a series of obstacles and delays, doors finally opened to the longawaited new Curaçao Medical Center. Just one day before, 1,200 hospital employees and 150 patients packed up and moved from the 163-year-old St. Elisabeth Hospital into the brand-new building. It was a massive operation that went off without a hitch, thanks to extensive planning and the help of a team from Erasmus Medical University in Rotterdam. WRITER: ÚNA JANSEN
The new facility is just a stone’s throw away from the old one but that’s where the similarities end. Bright and airy with floor to ceiling windows overlooking landscaped gardens, it doesn’t feel like a hospital. People are smiling and there are sounds of laughter as uniformed volunteers help patients and visitors find their way through the fresh new space. Now that services are in full swing, I sat down with Germaine Gibbs, Head of Communications at the center, to talk about healthcare, change, and the challenges of the coronavirus (COVID-19). Germaine
CURAÇAO BUSINESS | EDITION 1 | 2020
explained that the new hospital is more than just a new building. The entire ethos has been altered. “One of the biggest changes is the way we view the people who use the center. We see them as guests, not just patients”, she tells me, and feedback so far has been excellent. There are still areas for improvement, such as signage and routing, however management, staff, and patients are all reporting positive experiences. A vital component has been the technological improvements that advance the care offered and allow healthcare professionals
to deliver more efficient service. One example is the novel way that pathology services are carried out. The center now outsources nearly all its testing to an offsite lab run by Analytisch Diagnostisch Centrum NV (ADC). Samples are delivered in seconds via a pressurized vacuum tube running from the medical center to the lab, speeding up testing and results. The hospital has also adopted the HIX (Healthcare Information Exchange) medical information management system which eliminates the need for medical charts, handwritten doctor referral letters and all the associated delays. HIX
