Minister of Public Health and Managing Director of HMC, H E Dr Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari, and members of some of the winning teams at the 2016 HMC Stars of Excellence Awards.
A programme that has implemented a single electronic medical record for each patient has been recognised with the prestigious Managing Director’s Award at Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) annual Stars of Excellence Awards.
The Clinical Information System (CIS) Clinical Transformation programme saw millions of paper-based patient records converted into standardised electronic records.
More than 24,000 members of HMC’s clinical and non-clinical workforce were trained to use the system. Working alongside this process was patient registration, creating new and updated records for each and every patient of HMC’s network of hospitals and services.
“This programme touches not only a majority of our staff every day, but also has a real and positive impact on the lives of our patients,” said H E Dr Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari, Minister of Public Health and Managing Director of HMC, who presented the award to the team in charge for the transformation at an event in Doha last month.
“We are very proud of the fact that Qatar is the second and largest country in the world to have a single, integrated Electronic Health Record for every patient. Our staff have worked hard to implement this programme so that we can respond to changes in health care technology and most importantly, patients' needs and expectations,” she said.
Each year, the Stars of Excellence Awards winners are chosen based on their performance against key criteria such as the application of international best practice, evidence of direct improvements resulting from the project, and how the project has impacted patient care and the overall patient experience.
Dr Wasmiya Dalham, Executive Director of Nursing Informatics at HMC, said the CIS programme has already resulted in real improvements to patient care, including a reduction in medication errors and decrease in readmission rates. “The positive impact this programme has on patient care is very real — having this information at their fingertips means our clinical professionals can spend more time with patients and focus on providing the best possible treatment and advice in a timely and safe manner,” she added.
