Zebra Technologies Corporation, a global leader in products and services that provide real-time visibility into organisations’ assets, people and transactions, has announced a strategic relationship with Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) in Qatar, for use of its printer solutions.

This partnership will see Zebra printers being used to enhance patient identification, through labelling and wristbands, including pathology and pharmacy, said a company statement.

The company highlighted the new relationship recently at Arab Health 2015, where it presented its extensive range of solutions – including new mobile printer models - designed specifically for the healthcare sector, it added.

HMC is providing its hospital staff to ensure the match of the right patient with the right sample or drug. Providing clear identification in both human readable form and in barcodes (1D or 2D) is an important part of HMC’s future state workflow design.  

Specialty printing plays a critical role in the healthcare sector - from patient and staff identification to labelling specimens and samples at the point of collection including bedside - to reduce the risk of errors and adverse events.

Zebra’s range of printers designed for healthcare helps hospitals ensure that adult, paediatric and infant patients are accurately identified throughout their hospital stay and enable immediate access to critical patient information from admission right to the patient’s bedside and across all hospital departments. It is all about helping make hospitals safer and more productive.

The range of Zebra desktop and mobile healthcare printing solutions are already in use in the Gulf Cooperation Council across a range of hospital operations, it added.

Paul Charnley, assistant chief of strategic programmes health information and communications technology for Hamad Medical Corporation, said: “Zebra Technologies has served as a trusted advisor to help us provide optimal patient care.  For example, we are now printing on super soft wristbands for the tiny infants being cared for in our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.”

“We have ordered Zebra equipment for four of our eight hospitals and anticipate completing the rest of the project by the end of 2015. We plan to use Zebra as we open new hospitals in 2016 and beyond.”

Franck Riout, vertical marketing manager healthcare, EMEA, Zebra Technologies, said: “Patient-centred care and safety is every hospital’s number one priority and accurate patient identification is fundamental to achieving this.”

“Zebra is partnering with Hamad Medical Corporation in Qatar to deliver a better patient experience, through better access to information whilst helping to meet the quality and patient safety standards demanded by international industry regulators. It’s all about making hospitals safer, more efficient and more productive.” – TradeArabia News Service