QEH to go paperless, ‘save millions, boost patient care’

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) is embarking on a digital overhaul to eliminate its reliance on paper, a move that could save $1 million a year while enhancing patient care, the hospital’s chief executive said Monday.

The shift, part of the hospital’s 2025–2028 strategic plan, is expected to cut costs, optimise workflows, and create much-needed treatment spaces.

Appearing on the hospital’s Pulse Radio Show, Clarke stressed the urgency for change: “We spend nearly a million dollars a year on paper . . . . All those things won’t be required if we can get truly paperless.”

The digitisation effort is a key component of the hospital’s 2025–2028 strategic plan, which includes implementing a Health Information System (HIS). This system is designed to streamline hospital workflows, improve patient flow, and provide real-time access to critical information.

The island’s sole public hospital will also reduce exorbitant expenses through this initiative, as the shift to a digital environment will free up physical space, creating much-needed room for treatment.

“Record libraries will be made available back to the hospital for more treatment spaces,” Clarke explained.

“We know we’ve got challenges with outpatient spaces at the moment, so this will make a significant difference. We also have off-site medical records that we probably pay rent and storage for, which we will no longer need in the future,” the CEO added, highlighting the financial benefits of the move.

Louise Bobb, the hospital’s director of support services, also disclosed that the hospital plans to engage external experts to manage the “complex process” of converting physical records into digital formats.

“Digitalisation of health records is a very specialised service and undertaking because our medical notes are not just A4 paper-sized bits of paper,” she explained.

“There are all sorts of charts, blood samples, and results. Some records date back to when we opened the hospital [60 years ago], so the paper is very hard to deal with and therefore calls for specific talent to transfer and convert paper into electronic form.”

According to Bobb, the digitisation project, one of the precursors to the HIS, is expected to begin before the end of the financial year.

The transition to a paperless system will also involve upskilling hospital staff, many of whom have already undergone training in health information management during their studies at the Barbados Community College. Early preparations to transition these soon-to-be ‘managers of information’ from manual records to digital roles are already underway.

“Preparing our people for the change, both staff and the public, is a critical component of this transition,” Bobb said.

“Having the records digitised, where everything is at your fingertips, is an important cog in the wheel of digital transformation.”