DOHA: The roll-out of Clinical Information System for Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) Cuban Hospital takes place on Friday.
The hospital will replace the paper patient clinical records system with the electronic clinical information system (CIS) as part of a phased roll-out across HMC and Primary Healthcare Corporation (PHCC).
When complete, patient records will be stored and accessible electronically across both organisations.
Women’s Hospital, Al Wakrah Hospital, National Centre for Cancer Care and Research, Heart Hospital, Al Khor Hospital and many PHCC clinics have rolled out the CIS system over the last one year with a positive impact.
Clinicians at these facilities have access to a single electronic health record of patients at fingertips whenever they need it.
The CIS is a comprehensive system-wide change designed in collaboration with clinicians to ensure patients receive the safest and most effective care.
Through implementation of the system at Cuban Hospital, clinicians and healthcare providers will be able to access a patient’s healthcare history, prescription information, clinical notes and other important information electronically.
The system will change the way staff work across HMC and PHCC, helping integrate care across multiple provider sites. As a result, there will a period of transition while staff and patients adjust. Cuban Hospital staff will need to gather more information from patients to register them in the new system, which may mean appointments will take a little longer.
Philip Lowen, CEO, Cuban Hospital, said his team has put processes in place to ensure a smooth patient experience. “I want to reassure the public that all patients will be seen within a clinically appropriate timeframe regardless of this system implementation. We will ensure the transition period is as smooth and quick as possible and we look forward to the system up and running. It is one of the key programmes for the organisation to ensure we provide the safest, most effective healthcare to the population.
“A patient’s data only has to be fed into the system once and after that it is available to the care team. This means healthcare professionals are able to focus more on supporting the patient and less on paperwork.” The importance of an e-Medical records system was set out in the National Health Strategy for Qatar in 2011. To address the strategy, HMC, and PHCC launched the CIS programme in 2012, which is one of the most ambitious and important.
The Peninsula
