King Abdulaziz Medical City (KAMC) in Riyadh, Saudia Arabia has achieved the highest level of the HIMSS Analytics Electronic Medical Records Adoption Model (EMRAM).

The Stage 7 EMRAM validation enhances KAMC’s strong record in using information and technology to improve patient care and shows its commitment to operating in a paperless environment, using advanced analytics to drive transformational change in all aspects of care.

WHY IT MATTERS

EMRAM is an eight-stage model that measures digital maturity in a hospital relative to their electronic medical records (EMR) capabilities, with 0 the lowest and Stage 7 the highest level.

THE LARGER CONTEXT

In July, HIMSS Analytics revealed that KAMC was the first hospital to be validated against the Stage 6 standards of the Infrastructure Adoption Model (INFRAM), an eight-stage international benchmark that analyses the maturity level of a healthcare provider organisation's IT infrastructure.

The hospital has also been validated against Stage 7 standards of the Outpatient Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (O-EMRAM), and the stage 6 standards of the Digital Imaging Adoption Model (DIAM)

Meanwhile, in October, Princ Paknampo Hospital became the first hospital in Thailand to successfully achieve the HIMSS Analytics EMRAM Stage 7 validation.

In June, Chase Farm Hospital in London, UK, was validated at Stage 6 of EMRAM. Only two other NHS organisations are currently validated at Stage 6, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and none at Stage 7. 

The Dubai Health Authority has achieved Stage 6 of EMRAM and is striving towards Stage 7.

ON THE RECORD

“The degree of staff engagement, clinical leadership and governance in general is quite outstanding in this hospital. There have been a number of cultural changes that have been made as a result of the efforts to embed technology enabled transformation, not only into new workflows but also into new behaviours and clinical perspectives,” said John Rayner, regional director of Europe, HIMSS Analytics. “This is an impressive hospital with strong clinical engagement and visible leadership from all members of the senior management team.”

His Excellency, Dr Bandar Al Knawy, chief executive officer at the Ministry of National Guard - Health Affairs (MNGHA), said: “MNGHA’s commitment to providing optimum healthcare services in an utmost safe environment for the patients is enabled, in part, by innovative health IT infrastructure and solutions. This strategic objective can ideally be achieved through a highly mature implementation of various digital healthcare platforms.”

Dr Raed Al Hazme, IT executive director at MNGHA, said: “HIMSS Analytics adoption models are highly valuable tools that we utilise as benchmarks to identify our health IT maturity level, as well as blueprints for improvement and adoption of best practices.”

Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.