The American Hospital Dubai (AHD) has begun work on the most advanced integrated healthcare information system in the UAE’s private healthcare sector.

When completed in 2009, the system, based on a leading US technology, will transform the patient experience at the hospital taking it to a new level, said a top official.

'The multi-million dollar investment is designed to enhance patient care and safety by integrating all the departmental systems and making available online patient medical records, clinical systems, radiology systems, financial and HR management to support the hospital’s 800 physicians and staff,' observed American Hospital Dubai Medical Director Dr Persha Nayak.

The healthcare information system implementation is planned to go live across all departments and functions in a phased manner by the end of 2009, coinciding with the completion of the hospital’s latest expansion phase, the new inpatient Bed Tower, which will more than double the current capacity of the hospital.

The new system is being implemented by a consortium of leading global healthcare IT vendors - (Meditech, Lawson, Siemens, Cisco Systems, and HP) led by the Director IT at the American Hospital Dubai, and assisted by the project management team from IBM.

“We have looked at some of the best healthcare information systems in the USA and decided to invest in the hospital to create a standard equal to that found within the USA system, “said American Hospital Dubai CFO, Jasper Kateli.

Research in the USA has proven that effective, paper-lite healthcare information systems dramatically reduce the need for human intervention in the complex systems operated by healthcare institutions; this in turn improves patient safety by reducing human errors, and ensures consistency in delivering a broad range of high quality healthcare services, generating valuable patient medical data to ensure a better patient experience.

Rajan Chadha, IT director at the American Hospital Dubai, said the healthcare information system was not just about internal efficiency and safety; but about ensuring a very high – and very consistent – standard of service for patients across all the ‘touch points’ in the hospital, to  support and enhance our high American standards of clinical care.

'The system will allow physicians to concentrate on caring for patients whilst ensuring medical records and real-time support information are always available online. All the tools to provide real time, online information to physicians and caregivers will be available. With our enthusiastic staff commitment, we have set ourselves an aggressive implementation timeline of two years,” he added.-TradeArabia News Service