Health City Cayman Islands has signed a deal with a healthcare group in the Bahamas that aims to bring Bahamian patients to Cayman instead of the US.
Health City announced on Wednesday, 31 Jan., that it had entered a “strategic relationship” with Doctors Hospital Health System Limited, also known as Doctors Hospital Bahamas (not affiliated with Doctors Hospital Cayman) on the coordination of “highly complex off-island medical cases”.
According to a statement from Health City, the collaboration means the Cayman hospital will be a preferred referral option for Doctors Hospital Bahamas, as Bahamian patients would be offered a lower price point for treatment of “complex medical episodes” than they would get if they visited a US healthcare facility.
It noted, “Patients paying out of pocket and insurance companies will benefit from cost savings, potentially leading to reductions in the fiscal burden borne by Bahamian families and healthcare premiums. The relationship presents a clear alternative to US-based medical care, which often presents as financially out of reach.”
When Health City first opened in early 2014, it was on the premise that it would attract patients from the Caribbean and Americas who would otherwise travel to the US for treatments and surgeries that were unavailable in their own countries.
Health City founder Dr. Devi Shetty said at the time that his hospital would be a far cheaper, but world-class alternative to those in the US.
Since then, while accepting patients from overseas, Health City has increasingly been catering to the local population across a wide variety of disciplines.
First-of-a-kind deal
Health City stated that both it and Doctors Hospital Bahamas are Joint Commission International (JCI) accredited hospitals, “making this partnership the first of its kind between two fully accredited, private medical facilities in the Caribbean”.
It added, “This patient-centred collaboration is envisioned as a first step in a deepening relationship between Doctors Hospital Bahamas and Health City Cayman Islands.”
Under the new agreement, patients in the Bahamas, who require services not available there, will have access to tertiary care at Health City Cayman Islands. After being discharged from a Health City facility, patients will return to the Bahamas “and continue to receive ongoing care from their originating physicians, who will be in constant contact with Health City physicians,” the statement noted.
There will also be coordinated emergency care efforts in cases where urgent medical evacuation is required, it added.
Dr. Charles Diggiss, president and CEO of Doctors Hospital Bahamas, said in the statement, “Not only are we achieving immediate access to specialist services not traditionally available in The Bahamas; we will present an option for superior outcomes which Bahamians seek. Doctors Hospital and Health City share similar values, which are based on a shared commitment to high-quality patient care outcomes. We look forward to expanding our relationship further.”
Serving more Bahamians
Health City’s clinical director Dr. Binoy Chattuparambil said his hospital had already helped many children from the Bahamas with surgical interventions and is “even more excited to deepen our relationships with our colleague clinicians at Doctors Hospital”.
He added, “This partnership will increase our ability to work with Doctors Hospital to serve more Bahamians of all ages, providing them with additional modalities of world-class healthcare.”
Its chief business officer Shomari Scott noted in the statement announcing the collaboration with the Bahamas facility, “Together, we can show that Caribbean entities can cooperate and find solutions for our region, holding hands for the betterment of our Caribbean brothers and sisters. … Through partnerships like this, we can continue to bolster the Caribbean as a global hub for healthcare excellence.”
Focusing on the financial implications of the partnership, Doctors Hospital Bahamas chief financial officer Dennis Deveaux said in the statement, “Bahamians ought to expect world class healthcare outcomes at Health City, coordinated through Doctors Hospital, but at a price point that will be significantly more accessible than other US based off-island choices. This has direct implications for cash paying patients immediately and will also curb the rate of growth of insurance premiums, given the high cost environment which is typical in off-island care today.”
Doctors Hospital Bahamas is a 94-bed tertiary healthcare institution, formerly called The Rassin Hospital. Its main hospital provides inpatient and outpatient services, and it has two outpatient centres in Grand Bahama, one urgent care centre in Exuma, and several outpatient centres and retail pharmacies in New Providence.
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