CAY HILL:--- The St. Maarten Medical Center (SMMC) Director, Mr. Kees Klarenbeek and Hospital of Saint Martin Director, Mr. Roland Toussaint signed a Letter of Intent between the both hospitals on Monday April 7, 2014.
"This is a step forward to working together but there is still a lot of work to be done after this moment," says SMMC Director Kees.
The future collaboration should work between both hospitals just and only for the benefit for all the people of Sint Maarten and Saint Martin.
The Letter of Intent is a decision of both parties to develop a partnership with the intention of sharing resources, working together when there are disasters to avoid discontinuity of care and giving the population the opportunity for emergency care support at either hospital, and these hospitals can receive payment from the insurance providers.
Another objective of the collaboration is to organize medical referrals between both facilities by sharing common training, procedures and care coordination.
Establishing a clear pricing agreement guaranteeing optimal healthcare quality will also be another focus of both parties.
Most important to this collaboration is the sharing of medical resources that will prove cost effective for the hospitals, especially when there is expensive medical equipment on one side of the island that is seldom used. Patients from the other side of the island can benefit from the medical service/equipment offered 'next door'.
Even though the hospitals are governed by different laws, there is no competition between the hospitals; they are equally interested in delivering the services that both populations of Sint Maarten and Saint Martin need to improve the care management of patients.
SMMC Press Release
