Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs - King Abdulaziz Medical City Riyadh in Saudi Arabia has been successfully validated at Stage 7 on the INFRAM by HIMSS.

The INFRAM, or Infrastructure Adoption Model, helps healthcare leaders assess and map healthcare infrastructure and the associated technology capabilities required to reach their facility’s infrastructure goals.

King Abdulaziz Medical City Riyadh is part of the Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs (MNGHA), a government-funded health system in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, consisting of six hospitals and more than 71 clinics, providing healthcare services to military personnel and their families.

WHY IT MATTERS

MNGHA has now become the only organisation in the world to receive four Stage 7 HIMSS validations and making them the most digitised hospital system in the Middle East.

It has previously achieved Electronic Medical Records Adoption Model (EMRAM) Stage 7, Outpatient Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (O-EMRAM) Stage 7, Adoption Model for Analytics Maturity (AMAM) Stage 7, Digital Imaging Adoption Model (DIAM) Stage 6 and INFRAM Stage 6.  

THE LARGER CONTEXT

Also in Saudi Arabia, the Almoosa Specialist Hospital in Al Mubarraz and the Dr Sulaiman Al Habib Hospital in Al Khobar achieved EMRAM Stage 7 status.

Meanwhile, Dar Al Shifa Hospital (DASH) became the first organisation in Kuwait to be awarded Stage 6 on the EMRAM and O-EMRAM.

ON THE RECORD

His Excellency Dr Bandar Al Knawy, the CEO of the Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs, said: “Through the digital transformation journey, MNGHA continues to employ the latest digital technologies to achieve the highest level of patient safety and quality care in order to provide optimal healthcare services to all MNGHA patients”.

Dr Raed Al Hazme, executive director, information technology department, MNGHA, commented: “Over the years, we have been leaning on HIMSS adoption models, including INFRAM, to guide us throughout the digital transformation journey in a systematic manner. Those adoption models encapsulate countless number of best practices and SME recommendations that are updated regularly to keep pace with the dynamic nature of digital technologies, as well as the challenges of the healthcare field.”

Dr Randy V Bradley, associate professor of information systems and supply chain management, University of Tennessee, said: “MNGHA excelled in the infrastructure governance and security categories. Their commitment to senior leadership roles in vital areas such as IT governance, which is inclusive of enterprise architecture and InfoSec. I was pleased to see a team-oriented approach to governance that is inconclusive, business, clinical, and business leaders on guiding committees. MNGHA sees INFRAM Stage 7 as a designation that speaks to the realisation its vision to leverage its healthcare information and systems infrastructure and capabilities to establish internationally acclaimed centers of excellence that enhance individual and public well-being.”

Philip Bradley, digital health strategist, HIMSS, said: “MNGHA while not looking to use public cloud services has embraced the use of cloud as a concept across two data centres.  This concept moves away from the design idea of having Data Centre A and Data Centre B in a failover configuration.  Instead, the two locations work together to provide the services needed by the organisation. Transactions are easily and seamlessly delivered to end-users as if the two locations were one.”