The E-Health Conference and was concluded yesterday after it had shed some lights on the latest health techniques at an international level; as it reviewed the vital role of electronic health services contributing in providing the highest quality possible of healthcare services for all beneficiaries all over the world.
During the conference, the speakers discussed various issues and topics about successful experiences applied in some parts of the world, in addition to a preview of the Ministry of Health’s applied strategies to develop the deployment of electronic services technologies to improve the quality and efficiency of the health system and the safe healthcare for all beneficiaries in the Kingdom.
Dr. Abdullah Al Amro, a Consultant, King Fahad Medical City (KFMC), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, during the lecture he delivered under the title: “Physician Leadership and Change Management in Healthcare Delivery Success” affirmed that KFMC is the first to completely apply the archiving system in the Kingdom. The deployment of such system has had a positive impact and satisfactory results on patients and health services provides. He indicated that the toughest obstacles when deploying the archiving system were the reaction of the staff and the extent of the understanding of this system. They managed to overcome such obstacles by convincing them by presenting an explicit mechanism as well as the gradual deployment of the system.
Dr. Abdullah Al Amro went on to add that the experience qualified them to go paperless and cut out the paper medical records transferring them to electronic data and records. This contributed to expedite the medical staff work flow when dealing with the patients’ cases; as it helped ease dealing with patients, and conduct screenings at a short period of time.
For his part, Dr. Saleh AL-Tamimi, CEO of King Saud Medical City (KSMC), during his lecture dubbed: “The Emergency Department Information System: The Road to Successful Design and Implementation”, talked about their experience in implementing emergency department information system; in which he affirmed the importance of having such system in the emergency department when time management is very critical. The emergency department requires a very fast electronic system. If the electronic system was not fast enough, then it is justifiable that the medical staff would not approve of it.
Dr. Saleh AL-Tamimi added that the Emergency Department Information System makes health services in the emergency safer helping to make the right decision to a great extent. In addition, it helps collect analyzable information to determine the performance levels and standards. He underscored that the goal of the system is decision making by receiving any emergency case that needs a fast interference in a short period of time; and by making the right decision it contributes to make the medical interference more efficient than ever before.
Furthermore, Dr. Saleh AL-Tamimi mentioned that the emergency department information system deployment in any health facility requires creating a team and a concrete partnership between physicians, nursing staff and IT team to go forward step by step when constructing, implementing and testing the system. Afterwards, the implementation of the next step will follow, indicating that it should be as simple as possible since that training is being conducted gradually; because each step is based on the previous one. He pointed out that the system is implemented in KFMC at the pediatric emergency department at its first stage. The second stage will be implemented within three months.
For his part, Dr. Abdullah A. Al Wehaibi, Advisor to the Minister & General Supervisor of ICT, Ministry of Health, head of the organizing committee of the conference, previewed the electronic projects of MoH and the electronic program that was adopted two years ago by the Minister. He affirmed that there should be a high quality health system to contribute to offering healthcare to patients according to the highest standards, complying with the e-health concept. Al Wehaibi added that the second implementation plan will take five years. The plan includes five major goals with 22 initiatives and more than 80 programs; reaching the total of 600 projects. He mentioned that they have 28 complete projects, 24 projects under construction and 12 projects under operation and testing.
Dr.Al Wehaibi emphasized that one of the most prominent e-health projects of MoH is the health information system (the Health Services Basket HSB) that is operated in more than 100 hospitals out of 255 MoH hospitals. Currently, the Moh is constructing the Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) Project.
The Advisor to the Minister stated that the Ministry has carried out Health Electronic Surveillance Network (HESN Program). HESN is a program that anticipates and tracks the surveillance of many diseases. It was implemented in Makkah Prelude to its assessment by specialists before it is circulated to all the Kingdom’s regions. He indicated that the MoH is currently working on the clinical management system the Geographical Information System (GIS) to locate the MoH facilities.
In the same context, there were a number of workshops in the Four Seasons halls that attracted the audience. During the sessions, a number of informatics and administrative systems experiences that have been applied in the various health sectors. The workshops were presented by groups of specialists in the field of health information technology from Saudi Arabia and from foreign countries. During the workshops, there were many discussions about health information technology. Moreover, the accompanying exhibition witnessed a great turnoutby the audience to see the presented shows by companies and specialized sectors in the field of health information system.