The hospital will attend to medical and residential tourism in the Caribbean, Central, and South America.

It also intends to bring in those patients who cannot obtain a vista to go to the US.

TECHNOLOGY, EQUIPMENT, AND INSURANCE

TECHNOLOGY – the main providers of the medical equipment of this hospital include General Electric, Datascope, Steris, Zoll, Stryker y Siemens / Draeger.

PERSONNEL – The medical personnel at John Hopkins will provide advice and consultation in some areas, such as second opinions.

INSURANCE – There are current negotiations of agreements and packages with local and foreign insurance companies.

Panama will become the third country in the world affiliated to John Hopkins Medicine, after Africa and Turkey, with the Punta Pacifica Medical Center which will open its doors late January 2006.

The John Hopkins Hospital has been named in the last 14 years as the number one hospital in the United States by News & World Report, the weekly news magazine which annually conducts a poll on which are “the best hospitals of the country”.

Punta Pacifica Medical Center, with an investment of over 40 million dollars, is ready and is just waiting for the green light of Hopkins, which is reviewing the last details to give medical certification and authorize the operation. This medical center, which will put Panama on the global medicine map, will be the first digital hospital of the Caribbean, Central, and South America, with 64 rooms and suites to attend to potential clients of the region referred by affiliated hospitals.

Punta Pacifica will also be a learning center, which is intensely equipped with the latest in medical technology. It counts with 7 intensive care rooms, 3 semi-intensive care, 3 units for hem dialysis, an isolation room, 8 beds of neonatal intensive care, and a neonatal center with 20 cribs. Also, 4 intelligent operating rooms, 2 rooms exclusive for obstetrics, and 3 labor rooms.

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY

In the institution, digital health services will be offer, under safety parameters established by the North American hospital. Luis Felipe Chen, medical director of Punta Pacifica Hospital, located in one of the most exclusive areas in Panama City, said this is a general medical center which will count will all the specialties, such as gynecology, surgery, pediatric, oncology, images, and cardiology, among others. In the first phase of operation, organ transplants won’t be done, but this is just a matter of time. 2 floors of this hospital have been designated for patients of all medical specialties. And another area has been designed for resuscitation of patients and children with critical and complex illnesses.

One of the main innovations of this complex will be the virtual medical services, digital technology which permits doctors to examine their patients from any part of the world. They will be able to connect to the hospital network from their computer, seeing a clear vision of X-rays and having access to clinical files.

Mobile videoconferences will also be used, which will allow patients to communicate with their doctors without the need to leave their rooms. This technology will allow for Hopkins doctors to have virtual presence in any surgery in Punta Pacifica. “We are going to be able to do assisted operations” assured gynecologist Juan Antonio Carbone.

The nursing staff will count with computers with wheels and wireless laptops to monitor patient’s files, vital signs, medications, symptoms, and progress. Another novelty – the delivery room is designed for patient’s families to be present while childbirth.

In this hospital work around 300 doctors, which every year have to be certified by the John Hopkins Hospital, 200 nurses, and over 150 administrative personnel of diverse areas.

EXPORT QUALITY

Horacio Estribi, executive director of the hospital, explained that Punta Pacifica builds an new alternative for exportation of Panamanian medical services towards the rest of the region. “In Panama there are high quality doctors, which now will be able to practice their skills with the new administrative and management methods.” More than 80% of the 249 private offices are sold and some are working as of this moment.