The Abdali Medical Center, a member of the esteemed Clemenceau Network, has implemented a clinical information system from Cerner, a global health platform and innovation company. The medical enterprise, which was founded by the investment group behind the Clemenceau Medical Center in Beirut and is affiliated with Johns Hopkins Medicine International, has adopted the latest IT systems to provide it with the ability to truly automate its end-to-end clinical and business processes and utilise the wealth of data collected to improve patient outcomes.
Abdali Medical Center, in Amman, Jordan, a flagship hospital setting the industry standard with its technological vision, is the first in the country to adopt i.s.h.med, a clinical information system from global health platform and innovation company Cerner.
This has been natively integrated with SAP ERP and complemented with world-class clinical content from Elsevier.
Intrasoft was chosen as the system integrator, providing end-to-end solutions through a network of partners, namely Soltius, SAP, Cerner and Elsevier; with the goal of the centre becoming a paperless environment.
Abdali Medical Center is making a significant contribution to the Jordanian healthcare sector with the creation of over 1,200 jobs
The centre is the first private medical institution in Jordan to deliver patient centered care through a collaborative, multidisciplinary approach, allowing better diagnosis, evidence-based treatments and research, as well as a strong emphasis on customer service.
With an exceptional clinical leadership, the hospital has formed 16 specialty centres and multiple sub-specialties led by professionals working together to achieve the best health outcomes for their patients.
Abdali Medical Center provides all services across the entire continuum of care from diagnosis, to treatment and rehabilitation, under one roof. It has emergency services, 14 state-of-the-art operating rooms, a comprehensive radiology department, a laboratory and pathology service, and other specialty centres.
The multi-specialty hospital is focused on setting a new standard of operational efficiency and personalised patient care. Abdali Medical Center has adopted the latest integrated EHR, Patient Management and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system from Cerner and SAP, in addition to Elsevier’s clinical content and clinical decision support to populate the EHR. Elsevier’s Order Sets and Care Planning are integrated within the EHR system.
Elsevier’s solutions enable optimal decision-making through access to trusted and evidence-based information – driving better, safer and more efficient care for every patient.
Paul Casterton, Chief Information Officer at Abdali Medical Center, said: “We are proud to be taking the necessary steps to become the first paperless hospital in Jordan in collaboration with our collaborators SAP, Cerner and Elsevier. Our implementation of SAP and Cerner’s integrated suite of ERP and EHR applications in conjunction with Elsevier’s Care Planning solution provides Abdali Medical Center with the ability to truly automate our end-to-end clinical and business processes.
“The implementation of these industry leading solutions by Intrasoft and Soltius will enable us to deliver seamless patient journeys, drive efficiency and provide high quality affordable care. In addition, the wealth of data collected will be used to report and improve patient outcomes and ultimately to manage and optimise clinical and business performance across the entire organisation.”
Bachir Awad, Vice President and Managing Director at Cerner Middle East and Africa,said: “We’re excited to work collaboratively with our first client in Jordan. Abdali Medical Center is also the first i.s.h.med client in the world to implement Cerner’s Bedside Medical Device Integration.
Moreover, Abdali Medical Center will be a pioneer in the region by being the first i.s.h.med client to implement Cerner’s CareAware VitalsLink and Cerner Multum solutions, which integrate decision support at the point of ordering medication and alerts the care team of any drug to drug or drug to allergy interactions. This helps to eliminate mistakes and time spent on manual entry or transcribing of readings from bedside devices and vital machines, as well as providing the care team more time to manage the health and care of their patients.”
Mohammad Abu Saif, Senior Director Delivery and INTRASOFT Project Manager, said: “INTRASOFT is proud to have undertaken this 12-month journey with a talented, dedicated and resilient joint team of consultants, developers, doctors, nurses and medical professionals from over 12 countries to achieve the fastest successful implementation in the region of such comprehensive and intricate state of the art EHR and ERP solutions. This implementation is a significant milestone in patient care and experience, paving the way towards a bright future of health care both locally and regionally.”
Kamal Sachdeva, Practice Head of Healthcare at Soltius Middle East, said:“Abdali Medical Center is a flagship hospital, setting the industry standard with its technological vision. We take great pride to have partnered with them in their digitalisation journey. Implementation of an integrated EHR solution is a significant milestone in this massive enterprise-wide project and a tremendous testament to the dedicated clinical teams and IT professionals who have worked together seamlessly to support the shared vision for excellent patient care.”
Martin Kopp, Global General Manager of Healthcare Providers at SAP, said: “Patient expectations in today’s experience economy along with available intelligent technologies are creating new opportunities for health care providers to take a leadership role in delivering value-creating, affordable services. Digitising every aspect of the health care value chain will help organisations shift focus from providing volume services to improving the individual patient’s quality of life.”
Tim Hawkins, Managing Director, Clinical Solutions EMEALAAP at Elsevier, said: “We are delighted to be entering into a strategic partnership with globally recognised health technology providers to deliver fully integrated Order Sets and Care Planning into Abdali Medical Center’s EHR and ERP systems. The push to digitise workflows is an exciting step for Abdali Medical Center that will deliver the highest standards of patient care.”
Intelligent CIO asked Paul Casterton, Chief Information Officer at Abdali Medical Center, further questions about the implementation.
Can you explain the main benefits of Cerner’s clinical information system i.s.h.med?
The combination with SAP’s ISH and Cerner’s i.s.h.med applications provide a comprehensive Electronic Medical Record (EMR) and a platform that automates the complete care process from first contact with the patient all the way through to final discharge and billing.
The solution provides functionality to automate all aspects of clinical care with integrated clinical decision support that provides our physicians with real time alerts to enhance the care that they provide. The result is that the right data gets to the right person at the right time which is critical to high quality care provision.
Can you explain how activating Cerner’s electronic health record (EHR) platform is supporting the safety and confidentiality of patients’ information?
As custodians of patients electronic data we have a duty to make sure that only those individuals that are authorised to have access, in the context of direct care delivery, have access. Using the SAP/i.s.h.med platform we are able to enforce a strict, robust and best-practice security model, including comprehensive audit trails, that far surpasses what would otherwise be possible without our EMR.
Can you explain how the solutions have automated the hospital’s end-to-end clinical and business processes?
The EMR is at the centre of our health care architecture and is interfaced to our other specialist solution (e.g. picture archiving and communication system, laboratory information system, etc.,) using SAP’s integration middleware to ensure that our care providers always have the data that they require. In almost all cases our interfaces follow national electronic data interchange standards e.g. HL7, DICOM, etc.
How will data be used to report and improve patient outcomes?
As a by-product of automating the care process we will have access to data which will be analysed to monitor and transform the way that we deliver care and to underpin our commitment to deliver world-class cost-effective care. We will be extensively leveraging real-time activity data to inform our executives and clinicians and to make sure that the patient experience is proactively monitored and optimised.
In addition, we will be monitoring patient outcomes and will have the ability to objectively analyse what went well and what did not, which will be invaluable in establishing best practice value base care for all of our patients.
Can you explain the benefits of Cerner’s CareAware VitalsLink and Cerner Multum solutions?
Cerner’s CareAware Vitalslink solution is providing us with the ability to efficiently and safely integrate the ever-increasing amount of electronic data fed from our extensive range of medical devices, in to the EMR. The result will be less time spent by care providers manually documenting in to the EMR and ultimately more accurate, timely and complete documentation.
In addition, we have implemented the Cerner Multum clinical support solution which checks, in real-time, medication orders being placed by the physicians and warns of potential conflicts such as allergic reactions, drug to drug interactions, etc.
