His Excellency the Minister of Health, Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Rabeeah, affirmed that the Ministry of Health (MOH) has embraced the culture of analogy as an effective approach to the improvement of health services provided to citizens and beneficiaries. In this spirit, the Ministry's health strategy is based upon certain elements, most notably e-governance, e-health file, automation of procedures, and harnessing technology to the Ministry's services and programs.
Dr. Al-Rabeeah pointed out that the first phase of the Health Services Unified E-Portal covered several electronic services and programs, such as: Critical Errors Reporting Program, Bed Management Program, Measuring Patient Satisfaction Program, Clinical Audit Program, Doctor E-File Program, Staff Powers Management and Control Program, and Hospital File Program (1st phase). According to Dr. Al-Rabeeah, more services are planned to be added to the portal.
On the inauguration of the Health Services Unified E-Portal, intended to cover all the services provided through MOH hospitals and health centers, as well as other health sectors, Dr. Al-Rabeeah said, “The Ministry is currently encountered with numerous challenges at all sectors and services, especially with regard to emergency cases, and referral of patients among primary healthcare centers (at the level of the region, and the entire Kingdom). It goes without saying that such challenges cannot be overcome overnight!” The inauguration ceremony was attended by a number of journalists and those concerned with health affairs.
Dr. Al-Rabeeah added that MOH officials spare no effort in pursuit of facilitating work at hospitals through a set of programs provided by the Ministry, including, but not confined to, the Day Surgery Program, applied in many advanced countries. It marks a paradigm shift in bed circulation, thus providing beds when need be. He mentioned that 802170 day-surgeries are conducted around the world per day. The Kingdom has embarked on the adoption of this type of surgeries. It had started up with a very low proportion (2%) before it increased gradually over the following years (it amounted to 35% last year: over 15.000 surgeries were performed at many hospitals throughout the Kingdom).
It followed that Dr. Al-Rabeeah placed particular emphasis on home medicine as one of the most important types of medicine at the international level, not only with regard to chronic diseases, but to many other diseases as well. The Kingdom has already taken momentous steps in this domain, with the effect that this service is currently provided to more than 15.000 patients. Development in this area is on the rise.
Moving on to the field of emergency, Dr. Al-Rabeeah underscored the importance of emergency centers in all regions around the clock. “The Ministry has allocated a big budget for such centers, mounting to over SR 2 billion,” he said.
As his statement drew to a close, Dr. Al-Rabeeah reiterated the importance of the establishment of medical projects, seeking to cope with the Kingdom's expansion, in both geographical and demographical terms. To that end, 130 hospitals and 5 medical cities have been approved, in pursuit of increasing the bed capacity from 30.000 to 66.000 beds.
Dr. Al-Rabeeah made clear, also, that analogy standards are crucial for all health sectors. Besides, the Ministry has made every effort to make optimal use of the Critical Errors Detection Program, based on 49 analogy standards. “Detection of such errors is not basically intended to take punitive actions,” he explained, “but to reduce the recurrence of such errors. There is something to be revealed here for the first time: the Ministry has signed an agreement with Global Seismographic Network (GSN) to assess ten Saudi hospitals.”
For his part, the Deputy Minister for Planning and Health Economics, Dr. Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Yamani, has commended the keen interest shown by His Excellency the Minister of Health in the promotion of the development of the Saudi health sector, with a view to attaining patients' satisfaction by providing him with comprehensive, high-quality health services.
“As part of the E-Health Strategy, and in light of the substantial developmental steps taken in the MOH's Information and Communication Technology Sector (ICT), in a way that increases performance efficiency seeking to meet citizens' health requirements,” Dr. Al-Yamani added, “the Health Services Unified E-Portal was launched today, with the aim to include all the e-services and programs provided by the MOH facilities and other health sectors, so as to be unified under an all-encompassing, credible official portal. That's to be added to the feature of unified login to all services by using only one user name and one password (known as: single-sign-on).
Dr. Al-Yamani concluded his announcement by affirming that the MOH senior officials show keen interest in the fulfillment of the strategic objectives set within the framework Ministry's general plan. In doing so, they look forward to the improvement of the Kingdom's services, in accordance with the schedule set for the accomplishment of all phases at all health levels (coordinative, supervisory and service levels).
The Advisor to the Minister of Health, and Supervisor-General of ICT, Dr. Abdullah bin Ahmed Al-Wehaibi, for his part, extended his sincere thanks to His Excellency the Minister of Health, Dr. Abdullah bin Abulaziz Al-Rabeeah, as well as all the MOH senior officials on the occasion of the inauguration of the Health Services Unified E-Portal.
Dr. Al-Wehaibi, then, gave an account of the e-services offered by the portal. He mentioned that the Bed Management e-System, for example, is used for entering accurate information on beds, day surgeries, normal surgeries and other hospital-associated matters. The entered information, used in developing reports and statistics, accurately and instantly, enable health decision-makers to take the right action. Another program is the Clinical Audit Program, based on a mechanism meant to improve the health services provided for patients. This improvement is ensured through the close follow-up and standardization of MOH facilities, in addition to evaluating the efficiency, effectiveness, discipline and productivity of all health workers, by way of the comparison with preset KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).
One of services offered at the Health Services Unified E-Portal, also, is the Health e-File Program, meant to provide a unified and updated database for all the MOH hospitals, as well as the hospitals affiliated to other sectors, with the aim to facilitate access to precise information and details, and avert duplication and discrepancies. By means of this File, contact information could be modified, if necessity be. This program, in addition, provides information about the location of each hospital, making it easier to get to the hospital through the integration and coordination with the MOH Geographical Information website.
Another service provided at the Health Services Unified E-Portal is the Measuring Patient Satisfaction e-System, used for facilitating collecting questionnaires by the hospital's patient relations employee, benefitting from advanced technologies (such as online questionnaires). The results of questionnaires are electronically saved to be taken, later on, as an indication of the patient satisfaction about the services provided to them. Accurate reports and statistics could be obtained from these questionnaires. That's to be added to the information used for the evaluation and assessment of health workers.
Among the other services provided by the Health Services Unified E-Portal is the Doctor e-File Management Program. It is a technique designed to develop doctors' performance by standardizing and following up their work, measuring their effectiveness, proficiency, productivity and discipline by way of measuring their KPIs. It is also useful for providing a unified database of all doctors.
There are many other services provided by the portal, such as the Critical Errors Reporting Program. By using this program, critical medical errors are instantly reported, in compliance preset criteria. This is carried out by recording the critical error, entering its details, so as to be reviewed by decision-makers and take the right action, in a way that reduces or prevents the recurrence of such errors. Besides, the User Management System is an integrative, inseparable part of the Health Services Unified E-Portal. It is intended to assign the tasks, powers and roles of the Portal's e-services, in addition to enabling users to access all services through unified login (single-sign-on).
For his part, the Director of the MOH Portal, Mr. Rayan Al-Fayez, pointed out that the Health Services Unified E-Portal is characterized by several strengths, most notably the unified login to all services and programs that have to do with the MOH hospitals and health centers, as well as other sectors, by using only one user name and one password (known as: single-sign-on). It also offers a central, unified and updated database including information on the health sectors (hospitals, health centers, etc.). It also helps us dedicate a unified place for user management, and determine the powers of access to the Portal's various services and programs. Aside from that, it provides us with substantial information on the events and activities targeting a certain group of people, or the beneficiaries of a given program or services. That's to be added to the fact that the Portal provides the opportunity of dialogue and exchange of experience between users and beneficiaries on the one hand, and the MOH staff on the other hand.