Keeping the community informed on the developments at Sint Eustatius Health Care Foundation is important to us.
Recently we received the calamity report from the independent investigation committee regarding the passing of a patient on April 1, 2022. The report has been shared and discussed with the patient’s family, the Inspectorate of Health and Youth Care and the employees directly involved with the calamity. This unfortunate situation has left its emotional impact on us all but, much more so, on the family and friends of the deceased patient. Out of respect to the privacy of the deceased patient’s family, the report will not be made public.
The independent investigation committee has reviewed and enumerated the factual circumstances of the calamity. A multitude of factors among which communication have led to the tragic passing of the patient. The committee also provided an extensive list of recommendations to improve the quality health care further. We take the recommendations of the committee very seriously and have reviewed them against the improvement plan that the interim Board of Directors has worked on since his appointment in June of this year. Most of the recommendations were already reflected in the improvement plan however based on the recommendation list, the improvement plan has been further adjusted and certain actions prioritized. The improvement plan is based on the following 5 pillars:
Innovate, learn to do better, communicate safely and effectively, focus on quality and safety and working together. Going forward, we will be sharing with you the concrete steps that we are taking towards structurally improving health care on St. Eustatius.
For now, we can already share, that this month, an across-the-board nurses skills training will start. This training has been set up under the guidance of the White and Yellow Cross Foundation in Curaçao and in collaboration of the White and Yellow Cross Foundation in St. Maarten. In addition, two specialized quality nurses will strengthen our nursing team from 1 October until the end of January 2023. Besides their duties as nurses, they will work together with the team on a number of care innovations, such as the introduction of the Early Warning Score, the improvement of the Triage system and the development of care protocols.H.M.
Furthermore, two nurses will start with a nursing specialization training to become diabetic nurses. This type of training and upgrading will continue intermittently until the end of next year.
Structurally improving health care is a joint effort that requires collaboration with all our health care partners. To this end, during their recent work visit to St. Eustatius, the full Supervisory Board met with local health care partners to align improvement actions.
Finally, we are pleased to inform that the SEHCF has signed a Letter of Intent with dr. Dorette Courtar. Dr. Courtar will act as a medical management advisor to SEHCF and will also help to take gynecology services at SEHCF to a new level. This is yet another improvement step in the overall plan.
We will continue to keep you abreast of our organization’s developments and our efforts to improve healthcare for our community.
Improving health care on St. Eustatius is something everyone can contribute to. We, invite residents to share their experiences and suggestions with us. This can be done via our suggestion box in Queen Beatrix Medical Center or via info@sehcf.org. We encourage the community to follow us on Facebook for the latest developments and announcements of SEHCF.