Durrant Pate/Contributor

The 79-year-old Andrews Memorial Hospital (AMH) is now entering into a different phase with new plans and strategies unveiled to continue providing medical services in the capital city of Kingston and surrounding areas.

AMH, which is operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Jamaica, is part of the Adventist Healthcare Services Inter-America network, which also installed its new president, Donmayne Gyles, who also becomes chief executive officer of the hospital, effective May 13. 

He succeeds Dr Patric Rutherford, who led the institution for more than two decades.

AMH’s strategic future will focus on five issues, namely, service quality, patient experience, employee experience, brand recognition through marketing and public relations, and financial stability. Currently, Andrews Memorial in a research partnership with Loma Linda University Health (LLUH), which includes raising funds for the procurement of three major pieces of lab equipment.

LLUH recently donated a micro scan machine that will make the processing of microbiology samples faster and more efficient. In addition, LLUH is also providing the hospital with guidance and technical assistance for restructuring the layout and workflow of the medical lab’s physical plant and gaining the expertise needed to move the operation to accreditation.

Hospital expansion on in earnest

Plans are underway to have a fifth operating theater, 40 new beds, a dialysis centre, and a partnership for kidney transplant surgery. Currently, AMH is partnering with the government of Jamaica under its project Code Care initiative to assist with the reduction of its backlog of elective surgical cases.

“We are on track to reopening our high dependency unit later this year, with a view of growing this service over the next couple of years into a fully functional intensive care unit (ICU),” Gyles explained adding, “we have already recruited key specialist nurses for this service and are in discussions with other stakeholders to facilitate its successful and sustainable future.”

The medical facility will soon be able to implement a catheterization lab including nursing care and the engagement of lead cardiologists to utilize the service and help with the rollout of the cardiac program. The hospital is on target to start offering magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) services by next month.

According to Gyles, “based on our assessment, this is needed to help satisfy the demand for such services and support in reducing the local backlog created, and we thank wholeheartedly our global partner for decades, AdventHealth (formerly Florida Hospital), for their benevolence through which this unit along with the cath lab was donated to us.”

Currently, AMHl has 60 beds and offers a wide range of healthcare services, including radiology, a medical laboratory, a pharmacy, a vegetarian cafeteria, a dental unit, a corporate health facility, an inpatient facility, an outpatient facility, and four operating theaters. The hospital is the only one in Jamaica that processes medicals for USA visa immigrants.

Andrews Hospital was contracted to offer COVID-19 vaccines to the public and was able to admit non-COVID-19 medical patients with severe illnesses under a public-private partnership. Gyles, whose position as president and CEO was effective April 1, previously served as the institution’s vice president of finance and chief financial officer.