Healthcare institutions across the GCC are now transforming into digital hospitals in order to facilitate healthcare delivery, ultimately ensuring the quality and safety of the care that their patients receive, said experts ahead of a key seminar in Dubai.

The 'Hospital Build & Infrastructure Middle East Exhibition & Congress' will be held from June 2 to 4.

Organised by Informa life Sciences Exhibitions, the event will bring together investors, commissioners, backers and managers of major healthcare building projects together with planning, design, building, operations, management and refurbishment suppliers.

Running alongside the exhibition is a multi-disciplinary congress consisting of 11 leading conferences that will focus on delivering up-to-date information which will address all the disciplines involved with the hospital build process.

Mounir Marhaba, the program director of King Khalid Medical City, Saudi Arabia, will be a key speaker at the Architect’s Congress during the exhibition. He will deliberate the emergence of digital hospitals in the GCC and whether the region is ready to embrace the technology available.

Technology improves the efficacy of communication between hospital care givers in order to ensure the quality of patient care. This is essential given the often complex and multifaceted nature of the tasks associated with care delivery and planning in healthcare environments, observed Marhaba.

“The GCC is investing heavily in its healthcare services infrastructure and the region stands poised to take full advantage of becoming the pioneer in implementing integrated digital hospitals. Even if the vision, know-how, and financial investments are in place, the road to excellent patient care will not be cheap. The development of digital hospitals is becoming more of a critical reality than a luxury,” he added.

According to him, healthcare delivery is a complex business sectors that involve multiple interactions among multiple stakeholders.
Current research indicates that a well‐planned, fully integrated digital hospitals can simplify staff workflow, reduce waste, and increase caregiver efficiency throughout numerous departments within a hospital.

Electronic health records (EHR) and other digital technologies collectively have the potential to improve patient outcomes. This will help hospitals identify and track infections, prevent medication errors and other adverse events, while alerting physicians to their patient’s drug interactions and other problems.

According to Marhaba, the King Khalid Medical City is likely to be the largest project in the world to utilize building information modeling (BIM) extensively in its design process.

"This type of intelligent 3D modeling improves the design and construction process and, ultimately, the operation of the facility and the quality of patient care down-the-line," he added.-TradeArabia News Service