Although just eight years old, Ain Al Khaleej Hospital in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has already achieved significant milestones on its journey to digital health.
The hospital serves the growing population of Al Ain under the governance of the Health Authority of Abu Dhabi (HAAD). It has 108 beds and attends to more than 600 patients a day.
Recently, the hospital earned accolades from the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) for its electronic patient record (EPR) system. HIMSS awarded Ain Al Khaleej with Stage 6 certification in the Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM), an eight-stage maturity model that tracks hospitals’ progress toward a paperless environment.
Fuelling this success is DXC’s Enterprise Management, a proven EPR system that helps to create connections between every department within the hospital, delivering information when and where it’s needed.
Going paperless
With a focus on world-class IT and digital tools, Ain Al Khaleej has made great strides in a short time toward a paperless, fully electronic working environment. But it hasn’t accomplished this without struggle. According to the hospital, one of the biggest challenges came from the nursing staff.
Although electronic records are known to reduce or eliminate errors in documentation, orders, test results and patient information, hospital nurses were, at first, resistant to the change. They felt more comfortable having paper backups. But eventually they were won over by the benefits of the DXC Enterprise Management system. The system’s advanced capabilities include physician order entry, medication administration, clinical documentation and decision support, filmless radiology processes and pharmacy management.
Since implementing the system, the hospital has operated in a paperless manner. “[T]hat has not only been cost-effective, but it’s been, from a documentation perspective, perfect in terms of our ability to provide accurate detailing on diagnosis and provide a more succinct process for exchange of details between the practitioners,” said Jim Purcell, CEO, Ain Al Khaleej Hospital.
Closing the loop
DXC’s Enterprise Management is a fully integrated, single database, end-to-end healthcare solution that can be scaled for large healthcare organisations. The solution seamlessly links disparate sites and workflows, and it also includes powerful modules for creating and maintaining detailed patient records across multiple sites and care settings.
The system helps organisations deliver the highest standards of patient care by connecting all available information, from patient demographics to clinical data and financial reports.
Another significant advantage is the system’s ability to safeguard patients. For instance, users must follow the five rights of “closed-loop” medication administration, scanning bar codes on patients and medications to ensure that the right dose is administered to the right patient at the right time.
“Patient safety is of paramount importance to us in the healthcare sector, and this system alerts us when we are under pressure, thereby safeguarding the patient safety,” said Neil Holtham, director of nursing.
In addition, DXC’s Enterprise Management provides defined documentation standards from the Joint Commission International Accreditation and other accreditation bodies to help providers ensure that they properly document patient care.
Dr Abdalla Almemari, Vice Chairman and Chief Medical Officer, Ain Al Khaleej Hospital, said: “Achieving HIMSS Stage 6 is a major step towards realising our vision of giving the best patient care and service to the population of Al Ain. Without DXC’s dedication and co-operation, it would not have been possible to achieve Stage 6 standards of electronic medical records.”
Looking ahead
Even with this significant certification in place, the hospital is not resting on its laurels. Working with DXC, the hospital is looking towards the future and planning to earn Stage 7 certification.
Administrators credit DXC with helping the hospital make such big gains in such a short time, to the benefit of providers and patients.
“Having a partner that has been down this road before certainly helps alleviate some of the pitfalls that perhaps – if we didn’t have that arrangement – we would encounter. In essence, it would be a dream for us to be at the point we are today if it hadn’t been for the relationship and the partnering with DXC,” Purcell added.
