Advanced Integrated Systems (AIS) has rolled out its National Patient Information System (NPIS) to government-operated pharmacies in hospitals even as it pushes for take-up by doctors in private practice.
The NPIS was added to government-operated Drug Serv pharmacies a few months ago, but is just being introduced to the hospitals pharmacies, AIS chairman and CEO Doug Halsall told Gleaner Business.
At least four pharmacies are added to the platform per month, Halsall said.
AIS has created a database that will allow medical practitioners to generate electronic prescriptions, schedule appointments with clients, receive medical alerts and information on new drugs and process health claims.
The four-pillared platform proposes to revamp patient record management, allowing patients to own their medical information, contrary to what currently obtains where patients records remain the property of medical facilities.
Pharmacies will use the Provider Access System Pharmacy Information System (PAS-PIMS) while doctors will use the PAS-MD component of the programme. The platform also features components for laboratory record and hospital record management version which has been piloted at the University Hospital of the West Indies.
The company completed a three-month-long pilot of its PAS-MD at Kingston-based Mancare Medical centre, ahead of the planned roll-out and is now ready "to proliferate it to the 3,900 doctors that we have", Halsall said.
"Our first user acceptance test with the doctors system was successful. The only feature that we have not yet activated in the private sector - we can activate it in the public sector - is the electronic prescription because the Pharmacy Council has to approve that."
The pilot lasted about four months.
The technology is there to support electronic prescriptions, he added.
"We are just awaiting the approval. We gather it might be done at the Pharmacy Council next meeting," he said.
The roll-out follows AIS's pitch to the Government and to have the platform used for Jamaica's 25 hospitals and 300 clinics.
AIS already provides insurance and health-claims processing for some 3,900 medical facilities, two large insurance companies and the National Health Fund, handling some 130,000 claims per day.
-Jamaica Gleaner