A 2022 comprehensive assessment of Barbados’ national health system has exposed critical shortcomings in digital infrastructure and organization, pushing the Caribbean nation to accelerate its digital transformation efforts to elevate patient care standards, according to a top health ministry official.
Stacie Goring, Acting Director of the Planning and Research Unit at Barbados’ Ministry of Health, outlined these findings and the way forward during a recent virtual public consultation focused on the digital element of the country’s Health Services Resilience Programme. Goring explained that the evaluation uncovered a deeply fragmented health information ecosystem, marked by severely limited interoperability and weak data sharing across the nation’s core healthcare facilities. Major care providers including the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH), community polyclinics, diagnostic laboratories, and retail pharmacies currently operate disconnected digital systems that prevent seamless information flow between care settings.
Beyond fragmented infrastructure, the assessment flagged multiple additional gaps that demand urgent attention. These include incomplete policy frameworks and inconsistent industry standards, persistent challenges with data accuracy and consistent reporting, underdeveloped core digital infrastructure, and unreliable connectivity in many care facilities. Goring also noted that Barbados currently lacks sufficient trained capacity in digital health and health informatics, and needs to implement stronger safeguards to protect patient data privacy and prevent cybersecurity breaches.
Despite these well-documented shortcomings, Goring emphasized that Barbados has already made meaningful progress in rolling out digital health initiatives across its entire care continuum. In the primary care sector, all polyclinics currently use an electronic medical record system that covers core administrative and clinical functions, from patient registration and appointment scheduling to admission management and centralized digital health record storage. These facilities also leverage digital tools to power public health surveillance, infectious disease testing, and ongoing patient monitoring.
At the QEH, the island’s main tertiary care facility, a large-scale modernization project is already underway. The centerpiece of this work is the deployment of a fully integrated enterprise health information system, alongside a full digitization project converting all existing paper patient and medical records to digital formats. The project also includes major investments in core information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure, including new servers, clinician workstations, and mobile tablets that will give care teams instant access to unified patient records across every hospital department. Goring projected that the full shift to electronic medical records will cut down on the longstanding problem of lost patient files, improve clinical decision-making and patient outcomes, and streamline end-to-end hospital workflows.
Work is also progressing to upgrade digital capabilities at the Best-dos Santos Public Health Laboratory, the nation’s leading public health testing facility. Upgrades there include a modernized laboratory information management system that will fully integrate lab test results into centralized patient electronic health records, eliminating delays and information gaps for clinicians. At the country’s public pharmacies, electronic prescribing and medication tracking systems are already in operation, giving clinicians instant visibility into a patient’s full medication history to reduce adverse drug interactions and improve overall patient safety.
Officials are also conducting a full review of existing national legislation to determine whether current laws provide adequate regulatory support for electronic health records and digital care delivery, a key step to formalize the transformation process.
In closing, Goring stressed that sustainable digital transformation in health requires far more than just investing in new hardware and software. “Moving forward, one of the critical things we want to emphasise is that digital health is more than technology. It’s about governance and management. It’s about people and culture, infrastructure, a set of services and applications, and informed health policy and practice,” she said.