Mercy Hospital upgrades its laboratory equipment
–as medical institution continues its rapid technological advancement to meet U.S.A standards
Georgetown, Guyana: October 18, 2018– In synch with the recent recertification of its laboratory by the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS), the St. Joseph Mercy Hospital (SJMH) on Parade Street Kingston has been rapidly advancing the upgrade of its systems and technological equipment, especially since the health institution is the only one currently offering medical testing to meet the needs of the United States Embassy’s requirements for a visa to enter that country.
Noteworthy is the hospital’s acquisition of advanced testing machines to significantly accelerate rapid testing for Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) and tuberculosis. These are expected to give faster results to patients visiting the medical institution.
Recently, alluding to the capabilities of the new equipment, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SJMH, Enoch Gaskin indicated that the new developments are all in line with the hospital’s commitment to ensure that it continuously improves the quality of service to the public as well as meet the standards required internationally.
“Here at Mercy we believe in sustained quality and with that in mind we attempt to analyse the marketplace and fill the niches in a speedy and affordable manner. These tests were as a result of a need. There is a need and we decided to step up to the challenge. This is something we’ll do quite often because our lab is a quality certified lab and one of the features of any quality organisation is continuous improvement. You can’t be satisfied with where you are…. you need to go to the next step and for us, adding services-quality services- in a sustainable and affordable way, is how we will satisfy the ethos of a quality organisation,” he posited.
Meanwhile, Quality Manager of the laboratory, Nolan Hawke explained that the additional advanced technology in the laboratory is all part of the process in line with requirements by the Centre for Disease Control (CDC).
“The US Embassy wanted….well…they actually upgraded CDC to the point where you had to introduce the new testing, the Quantiferon Gold (blood test) and also the Neisseria Gonorrhea as well as the Chlamydia testing,” he disclosed.
Hawke explained further some of the features of the highly advanced machines and their capabilities.
“…The gene expert, the technology comes with three control panels attached to the one unit so for every test that we actually conduct, quality control checks are made within that same timeframe and the technology is such that we now take a log of the control measures that we actually executed and likewise with the tuberculosis testing the control panels are there as well, standards are set up and we analyse the outcome of that,” he said.
Elated to be part of the team announcing the new technology, Deputy CEO of the hospital, Deborrah Ramsay pointed to the fact that the hospital is the only medical institution thus far, equipped with at least one of the advanced machines that would provide rapid testing to patients.
“Regardless of where the public has to take their results, we are ensuring that we give this service to the entire public and as such with the two pieces of equipment…we are really the only hospital in this country right now that can do this test so we have really….made it even better for people to get fast testing so the tuberculosis test as I said we’re the only hospital now in the country that has this testing and we have the gene expert testing which actually relates to STDs …so we’re very proud of the fact that we are with technology at its highest in this country,” Ramsay jubilantly noted.
She announced further that with the institution now also equipped with new machines comprising hormone testing capabilities, it could be assured that patients seeking hormone tests would obtain faster results.
“I’m elated, happy to announce that we can offer our hormone panel for females, for men. Those doctors that are into gynaecology would be happy as well too that we can offer that service for the nation. What is important as well too is that we would still be offering PSAs,” Quality Manager Nolan Hawke added.
‘Mercy Hospital’ is the only medical institution in Guyana currently approved by the United States Embassy to conduct medical testing for visa-processing and the hospital has been living up to the trust of the U.S. Immigration Service thus far.
SJMH was awarded the Platinum Service Award for Quality by the GNBS during the National Quality Awards 2017.