King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital (KKESH), a tertiary care ophthalmic facility in Saudi Arabia, has been validated against the Stage 7 standards of the HIMSS Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM).

KKESH achieved Stage 6 of the EMRAM five months after deploying InterSystems’ TrakCare health information system. The hospital was then validated at Stage 7 in less than two years, becoming the first one in the Middle East to do so back in 2016.

WHY IT MATTERS

The eight-stage model from HIMSS, owner of Healthcare IT News, measures a hospital’s digital maturity relative to its EMR capabilities.

John Rayner, HIMSS Analytics regional director, said the achievement showed KKESH was “committed to using technology to increase patient safety and the overall patient experience.”

Meanwhile, the hospital said this supports the Saudi 2030 Vision, which puts emphasis on improving access to and the quality and efficiency of health services, with a focus on prevention, underpinned by the use of digital technology.

Chief executive Dr Abdulaziz Ibrahim AlRajhi added that the renewal was aligned to their strategy to transform into a "smart hospital."

But KKESH is not the only facility in Saudi Arabia to have reached Stage 7; King Abdulaziz Medical City (KAMC), another hospital in Riyadh, was also validated against the EMRAM Stage 7 standards late last year.

THE LARGER PICTURE

Last week, Saudi Arabia announced it donated $10 million to the World Health Organization (WHO) to support the fight against the new coronavirus.

On Sunday, Reuters reported that malls, restaurants, public parks and gardens across the country were ordered to close, with only supermarkets and pharmacies, as well as food delivery, remaining open.

Furthermore, the news agency said Saudi Arabia planned to host a virtual G20 summit, gathering representatives of the world’s biggest economies, in one of the latest global efforts to tackle the pandemic.

As the number of confirmed cases continues to increase, however, we’ve seen a wave of digital tools and services that aim to help professionals care for patients. At HIMSS Media, we’ve been tracking some of these – and here you can find the Healthcare IT News and MobiHealthNews roundups.