Chief of Staff Wesley Miller retires from BHB

Wednesday 3 April 2024: After many years of distinguished service, Dr Wesley Miller has decided to retire from his position as chief of staff at BHB. The Bermuda Hospitals Board wishes to thank Dr Miller for his service and to wish him well in his return to private practice. BHB has already started the process of recruiting for Dr Miller’s replacement and will provide an update as soon as possible.

While the recruitment process is being completed, Chief of Psychiatry Dr Anna Neilson-Williams has agreed to be the acting chief of staff.

We wish Dr Miller every success in his future endeavours.

BHB shares update about hospital – physician communications

Tuesday 2 April 2024: Bermuda Hospitals Board has had a physician advisory council to participate in the ongoing development of our electronic medical record, PEARL, for over a year. Community and BHB physicians are represented to collaborate on optimising our ability to share highly confidential medical information about our patients.  The public should be reassured that BHB only uses secure methods of transmitting their medical information.

Communicating with physicians via private emails and fax does not constitute the highest level of safeguarding patient data. As we work through making improvements, we have continued faxing to community physician offices so there has been no cut off of available patient information through older systems.  Faxing is not perfect, however. There can be issues with transmission, or risks of paper running out at the receiver end or getting lost in the community offices. This is why their use is being phased out in other countries such as the UK.

Email and messaging can be used if they are on secure platforms. Many family doctors now have their own electronic medical records and we are already in the early stages of implementing an integration engine that will allow the different EMRs in these offices to connect more directly with PEARL.

BHB has also hosted two community physician workshops over the last year to assist them with using BHB systems and PEARL. We certainly want to hear from any physicians who are having issues receiving or sharing information with us at BHB. We already are in contact with certain offices and site visits are arranged if there are issues that can’t be resolved remotely. Prior to the question being tabled to the CEO at Docs for Dinner, BHB was aware of the particular concern voiced and our team had committed to support with a solution.

The requirements of the personal information privacy act do need to be complied with and this is a good thing for Bermuda. Within health care, an individual’s medical information should always be protected to the highest standards available. The onus is on us in health care – in the hospitals and community – to work together and find solutions that safeguard medical information while making it as easy as possible for physicians to care for their patients.

BHB celebrates World Kidney Day

Tuesday 12 March 2024: Bermuda Hospitals Board invites the community to get free screening and education about kidney disease at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital (KEMH) Acute Care Wing lobby on World Kidney Day, Thursday 14 March, between 10am and 2pm.

Nurses from the KEMH Dialysis Unit will be available to discuss the prevention and treatment of kidney disease, and provide free blood sugar and blood pressure testing.

Kidneys play a vital role in maintaining optimal health, as they remove waste from the blood and return cleaned blood back to the body. Each minute about a litre of blood – one fifth of all the blood pumped by the heart – goes through the kidneys. As well as filtering blood, healthy kidneys help control blood pressure, maintain body fluids and regulate the amount of salt, water and other chemicals in our bodies.

Vice-President of Clinical Operations Acute and Ambulatory Care Norma Smith says: “Having healthy kidneys is critical our wellbeing. The theme for this year’s World Kidney Day is kidney health for all. We are therefore encouraging the public to learn more about looking after their kidneys as well as giving them the opportunity of a free screening for diabetes and hypertension which can both impact kidney health if left untreated.

“Prevention is how we avoid ending up needing dialysis, so we want to use World Kidney Day as an opportunity to encourage healthier living and screening. This can help people avoid dialysis altogether.”