International health care information technology company, Cerner Corporation, and UAE-based Corniche Hospital have introduced the positive patient identification (PPID) programme to improve patient health outcomes and safety.

This has been done by combining Cerner's health care technology and data management capability with Corniche’s clinical proficiency and safe medication administration policy, a statement from the hospital said.

Corniche Hospital is Cerner’s first client with a full closed-loop medication administration in the UAE, the statement said.

The program, which is compliant with Joint Commission International (JCI) standards, is a barcode technology with a handheld device that scans a patient’s wristband and medication to validate information with the patient’s electronic health record administered by Cerner Millennium.

These validation steps provide patient safety in treatment delivery, without compromising a patient’s privacy, it said.

“In the closed-loop process, medication is administered at the patient's bedside, ensuring the ‘five rights’ are identified on one single screen: right patient, right medication, right dosage, right time, and right route,” said Dr Mariam Al Mazrouei, deputy CEO, Corniche Hospital.

The new programme provides a closed-loop-medication process to ensure automated validation of medications and patient identity matching. This proof-of-concept qualified the hospital for the Stage 6 certification recognition in the Himss Analytics Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (Emram), the statement said.

The award was presented to Corniche during the Emram Awards Ceremony at the annual Himss Middle East Conference & Leadership Summit in Abu Dhabi on May 20.

“We are very proud to achieve another major advantage in enhancing patient safety by developing and implementing this advanced technical solution,” said George Yacoub, chief information officer, Corniche Hospital. “This has truly been a collaborative effort between the IT and pharmacy departments at Corniche Hospital, colleagues from Seha IT as well as our partners, Cerner and CareFusion.”

Over the past year, Corniche Hospital has rolled out numerous technologies to automate the entire medication management processes, including procurement, physicians orders (prescribing), order verification and automation of the dispensing/preparation processes.

“Cerner considers this collaboration a major milestone in our relationship with Seha and Corniche Hospital, that goes back to more than six years and we are proud that they have been recognised with their Himss Stage 6 award,” said Greg White, vice president and managing director, Cerner Middle East and Africa. “Together we are developing a health management platform which allows us to deliver the best integrated and proactive care for our communities.” – TradeArabia News Service