Dubai, United Arab Emirates, October 31, 2016: Hospitals in Dubai that have implemented best practices in electronic implementation of medical records were awarded at a ceremony that was held today at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Academic Medical Centre in Dubai Healthcare City.
His Excellency Humaid Al Qatami, Chairman of the Board and Director-General of the Dubai Health Authority presented the awards and congratulated the winners on achieving efficiency in moving towards a paperless system.
The award ceremony was part of the activities of the UAE eHealth Week that is organized by Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Middle East and supported by DHA, Ministry of Health, Abu Dhabi Health Services Co.(SEHA), Dubai Healthcare City and Emirates Health Informatics Society.
Hospitals were awarded based their EMRAM score. EMRAM is accepted today worldwide as an international benchmark to stage hospital’s electronic efforts. The model uses a 0-7 stage scale to rate hospitals based on the extent to which they have adopted a paperless, digital system. Stage 7 means the hospital is a paperless and digital hospital.
Dr Sulaiman Al Habib Hospital and Canadian Hospital received the highest score award, Medcare Women and Children Hospital received the newcomer award, Garhoud Hospital received the most improved hospital award and International Modern Hospital received the ‘fastest completer’ award.
Al Qatami, said: “In line with the Smart Dubai Initiative that was launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai and in line with the DHA healthcare strategy 2016-2021, that has smart health initiatives which are aligned with Smart Dubai, we are keen to see hospitals adopt a paperless system. DHA has in place the NABIDH initiative, which will ensure every patient has a single electronic file in Dubai and the EMRAM score stage is a prerequisite for hospitals so that eventually every hospital in Dubai will be integrated with NABIDH. This means, whichever hospital the patient decides to go, the patient’s health data will follow. This has multiple benefits both for the patient and the health sector.”
Dr. Mohammad Al Redha, director of the executive office for organizational transformation at the DHA stated that EMRAM is a global benchmark that aligns not only with the Dubai’s domestic mandate to be smart and paper-free city, but also with its global ambitions.
Al Redha added that the DHA provides complete support to all hospitals that need any kind of assistance in their mission to move towards a paperless environment.
Jeremy Bonfini, Executive Vice President, Global Services at HiMSS said: “Over the last few years we have seen a drastic improvement in the EMRAM score among hospitals in the UAE. EMRAM is a recognized benchmark and a planning tool and the better the hospitals fare in terms of the EMRAM score the easier it will be for complete integration of electronic medical records for the health sector which is a direction the health sector of UAE is moving towards.”
