Today, Thursday, in the presence of Vice-Minister for Health Affairs Mr. Hamad Al-Duweila', the Ministry of Health (MOH) has reviewed the biannual report of (Health Experience) Program, which seeks to improve and develop healthcare services across the Kingdom. According to MOH, this program targets 70 hospitals, followed by further extension to secure its planned objective; to cover all hospitals and primary healthcare centers.
"The Ministry is focusing on primary healthcare centers and preventive medicine. As for primary healthcare centers, work is in progress to enhance their infrastructure, given their critical role in serving patients, both citizens and residents. Big 4 companies with the best consultants are involved in this giant program, which is greatly promising compared to its high costs.”, stresses MOH.
“This program engages young Saudi nationals. It is a pride to have them involved, and to qualify them for key offices in MOH’s health facilities or in the Ministry.”, adds MOH.
The Health Performance program seeks to boost productivity, performance quality and efficiency of hospitals, in line with the 2020 national transformation strategic plan towards the Kingdom’s 2030 Vision. In this spirit, MOH has launched this Health Performance program, pursuant to the 2016 initiative. Now, it covers 70 main hospitals, where over 40 key performance indicators are applied to seven service hubs, including: (emergency, clinics, surgeries, hospitalization, ICU, radiology and labs.) The program also develops professional skills to use the indicators and to identify performance improvement potentials, in compliance with patient safety and quality standards. It also measures patient and staff satisfaction.
Throughout the program stages this year, some improvement activities have been adopted, which will positively enhance service delivery and accessibility, including: emergency time-to-service, emergency cold cases, and time to MRI or CT scans
The program’s biannual report records a reduction in time to MRI scans. The challenge lied in giving long MRI appointments, which could extend to 15 days for outpatients and 3 days for inpatients; due to poor usage of MRI devices. MOH has put the right approach in place, by launching the improvement project based on the acquired data after training concerned staff. Hence, more appointments are given, intervals are shortened and appointment absence is reduced. As a result, time-to-service recorded a 68% reduction for outpatients (appointment in 4 days), 39% for inpatients (appointment in 24 hours), higher patient satisfaction and lesser complaints. A public clinic has been inaugurated to sort emergency cases to reduce the emergency cold cases at King Khaled General Hospital. In the morning shift, cold cases are referred to health centers. Cases are also referred according to the Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale (CTAS).
Remarkably, Al-Jubail and Al-Qatif Hospitals provide the most notable experience, with an MRI case referred from the former to the latter. The program also aims to ensure optimal utilization of financial and human resources, and to ensure patient satisfaction by securing MRI scans in short periods, though cooperation between Al-Jubail hospital and Al-Qatif Central Hospital to ease the pressure on the latter’s MRI unit. The project instills the culture of quality and waste minimization through integrated joint work like a family among the region’s hospitals.
In the same vein, King Saud Hospital – Unaizah has optimized its operation rooms. According to January 2017 stats, morning surgeries recorded 56%, which impairs the operation rooms optimization. An optimization project has been launched, to brief target staff on the precise daily time for surgeries, to deeply analyze the challenge and to update all surgeons on optimization. Also, an automated system to schedule surgeries has been introduced, and a weekly performance dashboard has been developed.
Stats have shown great improvement in daily scheduled surgeries rate (82%). The project has effectively optimized surgeries. Also, it has improved day surgeries rates and reduced time-to-service.