One of the Caribbean’s leading public healthcare facilities, Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH), is accelerating its sweeping digital transformation initiative — a core component of its 2028 strategic plan — that will soon give patients direct digital access to their own medical records via a custom-built patient portal and cross-platform mobile application, a senior hospital official has confirmed.
Dr. Gerry Warner, Acting Director of Support Services, who heads the QEH’s digital overhaul project, revealed the details during an appearance on the hospital’s own QEH Pulse Radio Show, laying out the long-term goals and current progress of the shift from decades of paper-reliant operations to a fully integrated digital health system.
For years, QEH has relied heavily on physical paper records, which are stored across scattered departmental locations. When clinical staff need to reference a patient’s history, they often have to request manual retrieval of files — a workflow that has repeatedly created unnecessary delays in patient care, Warner explained. To address this systemic inefficiency, the hospital has partnered with Abergower, a UK-based international document digitization and information management firm headquartered in Glasgow, Scotland, which operates a major regional hub in the area.
To date, the partnership has already converted more than 90,000 paper records, totalling several million pages, into searchable, secure PDF formats. The project is prioritizing records from patients treated within the last two years, with plans to scan older historical records as capacity allows, according to Warner. Once the full digitization process is complete, all clinical staff will be able to pull up a patient’s complete medical history in seconds, eliminating the delays caused by manual file retrieval.
The transformation is being rolled out in staggered phases, starting with the hospital’s health and wellness clinic, pharmacy and medical records departments, as the facility transitions to the new Universal Health Information System. Warner acknowledged that the shift has caused temporary teething issues, including minor delays in pharmacy and medical records services during the transition period. He emphasized, however, that extensive preparation preceded the system’s launch: training for “super users” — frontline staff selected to test and refine the system — began months before rollout, and the platform was customized based on input from these super users about department-specific workflows. Subsequent training for all other staff has been completed, with on-site technical support and additional retraining available throughout the rollout to address any ongoing issues.
To accommodate patients who are accustomed to paper records and may need support adapting to digital tools, the hospital will offer targeted training and a gradual transition period, Warner noted. “There are some people who like the comfort of paper, but we are trying to move away from that further as part of our 2025-2028 ICT strategy. We are trying to accommodate patients where they are at, and there will be a period of training for those who need help acclimatizing to the new digital system,” he said.
A key upcoming consumer-facing feature of the new system will be the patient app and portal, which will put direct control of health information into patients’ hands, Warner confirmed. The mobile app will be available for both Android and Apple iOS devices, while the web-based patient portal will be accessible from any computer or mobile browser. Through these tools, patients will be able to view their full medical records, check upcoming appointment schedules, access prescription details, receive automated appointment reminders, and even input their own personal at-home health readings directly into the system, giving them greater engagement and autonomy over their own care.
The digital transformation project marks one of the most significant overhauls of QEH’s administrative and clinical operations in recent history, with the goal of improving care efficiency, reducing medical errors caused by missing paper records, and expanding patient access to health services.