~Responds to criticisms about men, women being in same room~
CAY HILL--When it comes to medical attention for the ill, St. Maarten Medical Center (SMMC) says it puts the care of patients above their gender.
This was the response from SMMC officials to recent criticisms about male and female patients being cared for in the same room.
The issue was raised by Health Minister Cornelius de Weever at Wednesday's Council of Ministers press briefing. De Weever said over the past two weeks he and his office staff have received calls on the matter.
"My office has informed the Inspectorate in order for them to do their job and I've also spoken to [SMMC General Director ed.] Dr. [George ed.] Scot. We were actually supposed to meet at the end of last week, but due to scheduling conflicts we were not able to, but during this week I will also be meeting with the board and rest assured that this will also be addressed."
In an invited comment about the criticisms, SMMC Manager Patient Care/Education Coordinator Tony Pantophlet and Human Resources/Communications Manager Juliëtte Hassell said in addition to the need for SMMC to expand, SMMC's Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is equipped with only three beds, when there are sometimes six or more patients who require specialised care.
If a female patient is in the ICU and a male patient is taken to SMMC who also requires intensive care, that patient would also be placed in the ICU. The officials said they would not turn a patient away because another gender is in the ICU.
Because of the growing population, five rooms in SMMC's Medium Care unit located close to the ICU have also been equipped with telemetry equipment to monitor patients in need of specialised care. Telemetry is a technology that allows remote measurement and transparent conveyance of remote information.
If the ICU is full and there are additional patients who require intensive care, they would be placed in these rooms so that they can be monitored from the ICU ward. The Medium Care Wards are also used because of their proximity to the ICU and allows for quick access to patients.
Whatever room or bed is available, even if another gender is already in that room, the patient that requires specialised care will be placed in that room. In these circumstances, all efforts are made, Pantophlet and Hassell said, to ensure that patients get as much privacy as possible. This means that curtains are used whenever cleaning or bathing patients. Information is also given to the patient and their families in private and not in the room where another patient is. Patients in rooms with another gender are also removed and placed in rooms with the same gender as soon as one becomes available.
"We can't send a patient away. As a hospital we are obliged to give care and that is our objective - to ensure continuity of quality care and to provide that care to patients. If a patient comes in and needs extra or intensive care attention, and all female or male rooms are occupied, our objective at that moment is to place females and males together," ensuring that each receive the care that is needed, and that the privacy and safety of each are guaranteed Hassell said.
SMMC currently has 76 beds – 18 of which are in the obstetrics and gynaecology (OBGYN) wards. Apart from the OBGYN ward, none of the beds or rooms is gender specific. They are used based on needs. "We understand that patients prefer to be in gender specific rooms and we try to accommodate this as much as possible, but there are situations where it is unavoidable," Hassell said.
Pantophlet said too that hospitals all over the world place both male and female patients in the same room based on their needs. "This is nothing new," he said. "We put safety in front of gender."
Expansion
The planned expansion of SMMC is expected to alleviate this situation. However, it would not eliminate it because male and female patients would still be cared for in the same room if the need arises. Hassell explained that the hospital was designed more than 20 years ago to cater to a population of approximately 24,000, almost half the current registered population of around 54,000. This does not take into account the unregistered population as well as persons from French St. Martin, neighbouring islands and tourists who use SMMC.
"It was established if the population size grows to 36,000 an expansion of the hospital would be necessary. Today we are close to 54,000 persons registered, so the need for the expansion is there," Hassell said.
In its expansion plan SMMC is hoping to increase the number of ICU beds by three and the number of beds in the Medium Care Unit by 20.
The two officials hope that the population understands the reasons why male and female patients are placed together and they look forward to SMMC's expansion where more beds would be available and this problem alleviated to some extent.
