The Emergency Operating Room related to the Ministry of Health (MOH), annexed to the Mina Emergency Hospital, is reckoned a center for early alarm when disasters and crises occur. Its goal is to follow up pilgrims while performing their rites, and analyze the indicators related to disaster-predicting, Allah forbids! This in turn helps the MOH carry out the emergency plans and manage the previously-anticipated crises; in order to thwart any regrettable incident or reduce harm as much as possible, as well as following up delivering the health services for the Hajj performers.
The Emergency Operating Room was equipped with the latest technologies of wired and wireless communications, of which there are 20 fixed and mobile cameras and 5 main cameras distributed to the Holy Sites: Mina and Arafat. Further, there are 32 cameras within emergency sections, inpatient sections, and intensive care units in the Mina Emergency Hospital. That is to be added to 390 wireless devices covering three main governorates: (Jeddah, Makkah and Ta'if).
Furthermore, all the hospitals of the Holy Sites are linked to the Command and Control Room via the video conference technology (13 devices); which enables the senior officials to hold emergency meetings and to review the events with the locations directors at the Holy Sites. They are operated through four encrypted channels: emergency, central region, first aids, and health services for Hajj performers. The MOH Emergency Operating Room was also linked to the Command and Control Room of the Public Security Department (affiliated to the Ministry of Interior), the Operations Room of the Saudi Red Crescent Authority, Tawafa institutions, and Ministry of Hajj, as well as the Operations Room of the Civil Defense.
Within the same vein, the Operations and Follow-up Room was linked to 13 hospitals in the Holy Sites and the Holy Capital (Makkah) via the electronic network; with the aim of pinpointing the number of vacant and occupied beds; especially in the emergency and intensive care rooms. This in turn helps facilitate distributing the injured cases or those in need of the health services to the nearest hospitals.
The Room early puts all hospitals on alert whenever there is likelihood of some harm occurring. In addition to this, the MOH has an elaborate plan to deliver the ambulatory and emergency services, the most prominent of which are to put into effect the methods of risk factors monitoring, assess the necessary needs of addressing the anticipated risks, and draw up outlined plans related to each emergency type.
It is noteworthy that the Information Technology Department equipped the Command and Control Room with all the necessary devices, instruments, and systems; in order to facilitate and put into effect the role of technology in taking decisions based upon precise information and on time. Similarly, a host of new technologies were initiated, to the effect that video wall displays were divided in order to run a mixture of statistics, and the cameras important to the Hajj managing team; along with having the power of focusing on a certain program and enlarging it on the screen to follow some incident.
Likewise, among these programs there is the Smart Work Program for displaying the statistics of the hospitals and health centers. It includes the statistics of the hospitals through the Hajj Statistics System for all the hospitals of the Holy Sites, Makkah, and Madinah; and statistics of the health centers through the Digital Pen technology, which digitally conveying information without referring to the form sorting. Also, it is comprised of digital cameras for monitoring the patients' movement in the important sections, such as the emergency section, and a vehicle-tracking system which was transferred to a server with high specifications; in order to improve on the system performance and the wired and wireless control system on all the locations in the Holy Sites and the hospitals in Makkah to ensure that the performance of the network and monitoring of the data transferred the flowing communications to the Control Center in the Mina Emergency Hospital.
All the more, an interactive panel utilizing touch-screen computers was supplied and installed; with the aim of displaying the systems requiring interaction with the event such as vehicle-tracking system, e-fax. Further, an e-fax was supplied and installed in order to have patients referred among hospitals in a faster and more modern way. In addition to this, the Hajj managing team was handed a screen through which the officer refers cases by a swift button press, without drawing on the traditional way involving sorting fax paper and resending.