The Bermuda Hospitals Board’s “game-changing” electronic medical record project is set to go live next month.

The PEARL project, which stands for patient electronic and administrative records, will result in every patient across King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, Mid-Atlantic Wellness Institute and the Lamb Foggo Urgent Care Centre, having their own electronic record.

The records will include medical history, test results, physician notes and important information such as allergies which will be available to clinicians, whichever service a patient is accessing at any time.

Michael Richmond, BHB chief executive and president, said: “While our need to implement an electronic medical record relates to the critical replacement of an old clinical system, PEARL is a true game-changer for patient care and is a major driver of our vision to pursue excellence through improvement, to make Bermuda proud.

“It has been a huge commitment for our staff through a very challenging period. I’m immensely proud of our progress so far, very appreciative of the hard work by staff.”

Staff are being trained in the system with some 200 members selected as PEARL experts who will be on hand to provide support to colleagues.

It is planned to go live on October 29.

A BHB spokeswoman said: “With all the information immediately at hand, care should be more efficient. With safety alerts built into the system, it will be safer too.

“PEARL will speed up access to critical data, centralise the scheduling of appointments for all BHB services and replace older paper-based processes such as referrals.

“As staff members have to sign in to access PEARL, there is also greater confidentiality as the system records every person who opens a record even just to view it.”

Judy Richardson, chief of nursing at BHB, added: “PEARL is going to be a great asset for staff. It is going to be a tool nurses can use to improve quality and safety, and the efficiencies it will bring means more of their time can be spent where it is most needed – with our patients.”