The Health Information Technology Division of the V.I. Department of Health will host town hall meetings later this month to give residents the opportunity to learn more about the territory’s plans for implementation of the Health Information Exchange (HIE) and its impact relative to improved health care services in the Virgin Islands, according to a press release issued on Tuesday by DOH. The town hall meetings will be held at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 18, at the Department of Human Services Head Start Building on St. Thomas and at 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 19, at the Gov. Juan F. Luis Hospital’s cafeteria on St. Croix.
Acting Health Commissioner Mercedes K.C. Dullum urges residents and health care providers to come out and learn more about the HIE, for which the department received a million-dollar grant to aid in its development.
“One of the key benefits of the HIE is that this will enable all healthcare providers in the territory to fulfill the requirements of Act. No. 7264, which mandates the implementation of electronic health records, known as EHRs in the Virgin Islands,” said Dr. Dullum, who has had extensive experience in the use and implementation of electronic health records and is looking forward to the in-depth process that is certain to improve health care services in the Virgin Islands.
The HIE initiative is one component of a broader health information technology effort by the Gov. John deJongh administration, the goal of which is to establish information technology infrastructure that enables health care providers, the V.I. Department of Health (DOH) and the many other health care stakeholders in the territory to effectively and efficiently provide improved, high quality health care to all residents.
Dr. Dullum said that one of the heralded improvements of the HIE is that physicians can have a thorough history of their patients via a few key strokes on their computer.
For more information, call 773-1311 ext. 3135 or 3009.
