SMMC and its Future

Growing to better serve the Community

There are new and exciting things happening within our hospital.  It is our pleasure to welcome you to share our vision and invite you to explore the avenues that we will be taking to extend our services to meet the health needs of our island and region.

St Maarten will be attaining a more self reliant status within the Netherlands Antilles and the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 2008, and the Sint Maarten Medical Center, in its capacity as the central hospital of the island, must keep pace with the upcoming changes by adapting and expanding its ability to cater to the health needs of our region’s inhabitants and visitors.

Our goal of realizing our planned improvements kicked off in May 2007 with renovations to our Radiology Department in order to accommodate new Fluoroscopy equipment, as well as construction of a new Sterilization Department, relocation of which will give us space in our Outpatient Department to provide additional consultation rooms for a number of new Medical Specialists.   By increasing the number of specialists in disciplines most needed in our community, our next phase will be to expand our Operating and Emergency Room facilities and provide additional inpatient care to cater to patients who will no longer need to leave the island for health care reasons.  A new Intensive Care Unit as well as a Medium Care Unit will be constructed to provide improved care facilities for our high needs patients. 

As we approach a new decade in the second millennium, we at the Medical Center are fully aware that the needs of society are changing and that it is essential to quickly provide and access comprehensive medical information as well as health insurance coverage.  Even as our contractors are busy finalizing the building plans, we at the Medical Center are already busy with the preparations for the upcoming expansions and improvements. 

Our automation and infrastructure needs are under scrutiny.  A new hospital information system, linked to a new national patient-oriented hospital/insurance database, is currently being worked on. To prepare our staff for an increased digitized health care system, we will be providing extensive computer training as well as a home pc program.  Medical equipment is being updated or replaced so that they meet the requirements needed to provide patients with an Electronic Patient Record that is accessible both locally and internationally, dramatically increasing the speed with which patients are helped as well as accuracy and quality of their care. We at the Medical Center are looking towards an exciting future.  Whether you are a prospective patient or staff member, we welcome you in helping make our dreams for this institution a reality.