ST. THOMAS - Challenges arising from emergency air transport off-island and from providing care for illegal immigrants and the indigent will be the focus at a symposium Tuesday and Wednesday at Charlotte Kimelman Cancer Institute.

The 18th annual Pastoral Care/Biomedical Ethics Joint Committees Symposium, with a theme of Community Issues in the Era of Health Care Reform, is open to the public.

"We're endeavoring to educate and inform the entire community," said Toi Barbel, Schneider Regional Medical Center chaplain and chair of the hospital's Pastoral Care Committee.

The symposium will feature panel discussions - on Tuesday about the "Challenges and Opportunities of Emergency Air Transport" and on Wednesday about the "Challenges of Managing Care for the Indigent and Immigrant Population."

"They seem to be issues that are relevant today," said Lori Thompson, a clinical psychologist who is the chair of Schneider Regional's Biomedical Ethics Committee.

While people may tend to think that emergency air transport off-island is automatic in some cases, "there's lots of other factors that come into play that people just don't know about," Thompson said, noting that those factors include finding a hospital and a physician to accept a patient being moved off-island. Insurance may play a role as well.

Thompson said that organizers "felt that it would be helpful to the community to help them understand all the factors involved in transporting a patient off-island."

Panelists will include local physicians and nurse case managers, along with representatives from air ambulance services, the Medical Assistance Program and from CIGNA, according to information Schneider Regional released about the symposium.

On Wednesday, the discussion will turn to the challenges faced in providing care to persons who are indigent and to persons who are illegal immigrants.

Both of the territory's hospitals provide care for anyone who walks in the door - and both are strapped with millions of dollars of uncompensated care costs annually. The panel discussion will also include ethical issues associated with illegal immigrants in hospital settings.

The panel exploring those issues includes Thompson and Schneider Regional officials who deal with nursing, admissions and patient relations, along with representatives from the Health and Human Services departments and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to information the hospital released.

The symposium is sponsored by Schneider Regional Medical Center and the Virgin Islands Continuing Medical Education Committee.

For both days, registration will start at 8:30 a.m. and the symposium is scheduled to go from 9 a.m. to noon in the Bennie and Martha Benjamin Auditorium in the Cancer Institute. Light refreshments will be served.

For health-care professionals, certificates and as much as six hours of continuing medical education or continuing education units will be available.

- Contact reporter Joy Blackburn at 774-8772 ext. 303 or e-mail jblackburn@dailynews.vi.