Vice Minister for Planning and Development, Dr. Mohammed Khoshaim affirmed the significance of developing the performance of those working in the health sector and raising the level of their dealing with the patient and their attending to them. This in turn puts into effect the Ministry of Health's (MOH) motto "Patient First".
During his presidency at the meeting of the "Patient's Experience" Project,held at the MOH headquarters yesterday; and with the attendance of the Vice Minister for Therapeutic Services, Dr. Abdulaziz al-Hemaidi, hospitals' directors, directors-general, and a group of the companies working in the national and world private health sector, he added that the MOH seeks to deliver distinctive health services based upon the patient's safety and the service quality, and then the patient's satisfaction.
These three pillars constitute the basics of the patient's experience.
This can only be materialized by applying the highest world safety standards and embracing the scientific approach based upon the medical evidence. Not only that, the patient also is to become the servicepivot and effective participant in decision-taking, to the effect that the patient forms one of the pillars of the services delivered for them.
In like manner, he noted that the "Patient's Experience"Project is to focus on ways of effective communication with the patient, their family, and sympathizing with them, coming up with novel care means, and developing the treatment outcomes with all their aspects included.
Further, it concentrates on identifying the aspects through which the patient's satisfaction can be gained by the services provided in the MOH's hospitals.
These services include brushing up on the culture of those working in the health sectorregarding the art of dealing with the patient, pinpointing the aspects receiving the lion share of the beneficiaries' satisfaction and the factors affecting their satisfaction, whether in the outpatient clinic services or in the inpatient and emergency sections.
Within the same vein, he pointed out that the Project aims to boost the one-day surgery programs, home care,clinical management, and convalescence centers, provide the necessary medicines and X-ray equipment in the hospitals related to the MOH, and choose the quiet and less-crowded locations.
It also assigns appropriate waiting places for the visitors and those accompanying them and provides toilets in a way that go with the number of patients and visitors.
Even more, it maintains the patients' comfort, keeps them away from the noise and nuisances, and pays attention to the patient's complaints, as well as overseeing the medical, nursing, technical, and administrative staff.
Similarly, it seeks to reduce the patients' waiting time in the emergency sections and outpatient clinics and simplify the procedures of the admission to the inpatient and emergency sections.