This is an exciting time to be a part of the PMH Team! Understanding the ‘Truths’ outlined in the previous section and highly sensitive to the escalating cost for providing services, the PMH Executive Management Team has deliberately set out and designed a plan to impact and improve its current practices. We anticipate that the face of healthcare in the public sector of the country will be revolutionized - changed forever!
Two years ago, with the support of the Clinicians of the hospital, the Executive Management Team purposefully and strategically designed an approach to planning for PMH. Deliberate effort was placed on four (4) broad focus areas or Foundation Pillars:
- Improvement of Clinical Outcomes
- Service Improvement Program
- Infrastructure (Re)Development
- Training and Staff Development
Improvement of Clinical Outcomes:
The PMH has acknowledged the need to improve the accuracy of clinical care to patients. Critical to providing care is the manner of care administered. Recognizing this, the Executive Management Committee has identified markers for realizing an improvement in outcomes, namely pressure ulcers treatment and management, elimination of medication errors, and reduction in patient falls.
Inherent in this Stone is the need for continued staff training and assessment. Not only will it ensure staff skills are sharp but that they are aware of current techniques and patient care management.
Infrastructure (Re) Development
It is not an accident that the Clinical Outcome and Service Improvement plans are linked to the redevelopment of PMH. Within the last two years, PMH has seen amplified attention placed on the capacity needs of the organization. We will continue to train and equip PMH staff with the information and tools required to ‘get the job done’. However, in the absence of improving the physical environs, other efforts would prove futile. The population of the Bahamas has grown significantly and so has the number of persons accessing the healthcare service(s). PMH cannot meet the existing and forecasted demands in the absence of physical change.
The Redevelopment of the facility has commenced with a number of projects including the Renovation to the Accident and Emergency Department, the Children’s Ward and one of the most extensive undertakings/redevelopments on the main PMH site since the construction of the New Extension Building in the 1970’s, the construction of a New Critical Care Building.