Dr. Sulaiman Al Habib Hospital, Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia has been awarded EMRAM Stage 7 by HIMSS.

EMRAM, or the Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model, measures the adoption and maturity of a health facility’s inpatient EMR capabilities from 0 to 7.

During the virtual assessment of the Al Khobar Hospital, the statistics relating to the use of blood and blood products were noted. Less than one per cent of units issued had to be returned to stock and less than five per cent of blood products are wasted. It was confirmed that the hospital compared a number of transfusion KPIs with other hospitals in the group and overall performed well.

It was also highlighted that a good selection of order sets were generated from a list in a structured searchable data field.

WHY IT MATTERS

Research has shown that a reduction in the overall length of hospital stay, reduction in postoperative length of stay and cost reduction can all be associated with the use of order sets. Increasing the use of electronic clinical order sets is key in all clinical settings within acute care hospitals.

John Rayner, regional director, EMEA, HIMSS, said: “The doctors and nurses in this hospital are all very capable when demonstrating the different aspects of the VIDA hospital information system. They created a highly mature digital environment and were confident when describing the functionality of the clinical elements. We got the impression that they were able to make the important link between digital maturity and patient safety.”

Dr. Sulaiman Al Habib Hospital, Al Khobar, has joined a relatively small number of organisations in the Middle East that are committed to using information and technology to drive transformational change and improve patient safety.

THE LARGER CONTEXT

Last year, Dr. Sulaiman Al Habib achieved EMRAM Stage 6 and was praised for using technology to boost its clinical processes and nursing workflows, to the extend that all clinicians were reliant on electronic systems.

Shortly after, Mouwasat Hospital Al Khobar achieved EMRAM Stage 7, becoming the first private Stage 7 hospital in Saudi Arabia to achieve the validation. 

Other hospitals in Saudi Arabia to achieve EMRAM validation include the King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital, which was awarded the Stage 7 standard in March, and King Abdulaziz Medical City (KAMC) in Riyadh, which achieved Stage 7 validation in November 2019. 

In recent validation news, Ng Teng Fong General Hospital (NTFGH) located in Jurong East in Singapore under the National University Health System (NUHS) cluster, successfully revalidated their EMRAM Stage 7 achievement by HIMSS.

ON THE RECORD

Professor Rory Farrelly, nursing director at Dr. Sulaiman Al Habib Hospital Al Khobar, said: “There is no doubt that knowledge and motivation are important for success; The Multidisciplinary Team in collaboration between Dr. Sulaiman Al Habib Al Khobar and Cloud Solutions (technology wing of HMG) have demonstrated this in abundance since the hospital opened in 2019.

"Achieving HIMSS EMRAM Stage 6 in 2020, and now achieving Stage 7, is part of the transformational journey the hospital and the team have been on and this will continue, our journey has just started. The team at Dr. Sulaiman Al Habib Al Khobar have adopted with great pride all the Information Technology systems provided by Cloud Solutions including the data, and then harnessed it in order to improve patient care, optimise quality and safety, in a manner that is person centered at all times.”

Dr Abdul Hameed Chagla, director corporate hospital affairs and quality assurance at Dr. Sulaiman Al Habib Medical Group, said: “As we move into the future with healthcare, we at HMG are striving for increased patient safety, reducing human errors, efficient care coordination, enhanced performance analysis, increased patient information accessibility, integration of care and reduced operational costs.

"The best fit for all this was to be proactive and embrace technology as the driving force of the organisation and this is exactly what we achieved with a support provided by Cloud Solutions company and their cutting edge solutions."