the region grapples with a 10-year lag in digital health fundamentals, King is architecting a radical departure from traditional hospital operations. “It’s interesting for me that where I sit is between the technology business and developing new businesses and services,” says King, whose title change in 2024 signals Westshore’s strategic pivot. “Recently the board changed my title from Chief Operations Officer to Chief Operations and New Business Development Officer, which is important because it’s a very different focus. Instead of looking at the facilities, we are really looking at the business, its efficiencies, systems, and how to differentiate Westshore.” The hospital’s current state reveals the magnitude of change ahead. Despite housing 50 beds, three operating theatres, and partnerships with specialized units like the Advanced Cardiac Institute, Westshore still operates on paper-based systems.“EMR, online scheduling, telemedicine, nothing, zero,” King states bluntly about the technological infrastructure after more than two decades of operation. This gap becomes more striking considering Trinidad and Tobago’s relatively high financial inclusion rate of 80.8 percent, well above the Latin American and Caribbean average, and the government’s establishment of a dedicated Ministry of Digital Transformation in 2021. FROM PAPER TO ONLINE PORTAL Westshore’s digital transformation centers on an ambitious portal that reimagines patient engagement. Rather than a conventional website, King envisions a sophisticated platform hosted on Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure that fundamentally changes how patients interact with healthcare services. “I go to a website, any of the hospital websites, I really don’t know what may be wrong with me. And then there’s a list of endocrinologists, cardiac surgeons, and it’s not patient centric,” King explains.“What are your symptoms? That’s a good starting point. So, what I’m trying to do is build this. When you come to our digital portal, you are going to be educated, you are going to establish your risk factors along the chronic diseases of Trinidad and the region— diabetes, hypertension, high blood pressure.” The portal is more than a technological advancement. With the Inter-American Development Bank estimating that 15 percent of deaths in low and middle-income countries could be prevented through digital healthcare transformation, King’s approach addresses both immediate patient needs and systemic healthcare challenges. The platform 43 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 12, ISSUE 06 WESTSHORE MEDICAL PRIVATE HOSPITAL
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