Center for Health Market Innovations (CHMI)

Programs

The Heart Institute of the Caribbean

last updated Dec 18, 2012

Overview

Legal Status: 
Private (not-for-profit)
Year Launched: 
2005
Stage: 
Existing/expansion stage
Income Level of Target Population: 
All income levels

Funding

Primary Source of Funding: 
Out-of-pocket payments
Technology Purpose: 
Improving Data Management › Data Organization/Analysis
Summary: 

The Heart Institute of the Caribbean (HIC) is an innovative, dynamic healthcare center that serves as the center of excellence for cardiovascular diseases (CVD), occupational health, diabetes care and general internal medicine in the West Indies.

Key program components: 

"HIC is able to serve all patients, regardless of ability to pay. It achieves this by lowering costs significantly below U.S. expenses, and cross-subsidizing so that wealthier patients pay more and fund the care of poorer patients.

The Heart Institute keeps costs down by:

  • Buying durable, modular components: HIC purchases carefully selected equipment that will last a long time and can be used for many different purposes.

  • Producing some drugs and treatments internally: HIC produces some simple drugs and treatments internally to save significantly.

  • Using telemedicine: By connecting every center to a central server, one set of specialists can serve all three HIC sites, the staff can consult with doctors abroad.

  • Implementing electronic medical records: HIC streamlines its administration by using electronic medical records, which lowers costs and helps improve accuracy and completeness of records.

Cross-subsidization

By providing world-class quality of care, HIC attracts wealthy Jamaicans who would have otherwise flown to Florida or other parts of the U.S. for specialty health care. These patients keep their money in Jamaica now, and pay less than they would have paid by going abroad. Every patient who pays full price subsidizes more than four low-income patients who receive the same quality of care.

Training & Staffing

As the only cardiovascular center in the Caribbean, HIC has become a key place for Jamaican (and other Caribbean) doctors to train. This saves the Jamaican government money: if students go abroad for medical school at the government’s expense, those who specialize in cardiovascular medicine now have a place to practice and a reason to return home. HIC realizes the need build local staff to service the medical equipment the center uses, so it has helped the University of Technology in Jamaica start a biomedical engineering and technician program."

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