More Abu Dhabi Seha hospitals implement Cerner Millennium health IT

Al Rahba Hospital, in affiliation with Johns Hopkins Medicine, is a 163-bed hospital owned and operated by Seha, the Abu Dhabi Health Services Company. Seha is responsible for all curative activities of the public hospitals and clinics in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, the largest of the seven Emirates in the United Arab Emirates.

Cerner Millennium solutions are being used to improve patient safety and to improve quality and operational effectiveness. These solutions also are used to create a unified electronic medical record (EMR) for all 12 hospitals and 55 ambulatory and primary health clinics owned and operated by Seha. Currently, four hospitals, 11 primary health clinics and four ambulatory health clinics have implemented Cerner Millennium solutions.

"Seha's overarching goal is to improve access to quality healthcare delivery in the Emirate," said Saif Al Qubaisi, Seha Chairman and managing director. "One way to do that is to achieve the goal of 'one patient, one record.' This means that no matter where a patient goes in the Seha system, their electronic medical record is available: secure, online and up to date."

The Cerner Millennium solutions implemented at Al Rahba Hospital automate processes in the registration, scheduling, surgery, pharmacy, pathology, radiology and emergency departments. Clinicians at Al Rahba Hospital also are using Cerner Millennium solutions to document care and place orders in the EMR. These solutions operate on the Cerner Millennium architecture, a unified HIT computing platform that helps health professionals elevate safety, quality and efficiency.

"Cerner Millennium solutions allow our clinicians to provide safer, more efficient care to patients," said Muhammad Al Quaid, Al Rahba Hospital chief information officer. "The unified Cerner Millennium electronic medical record that Al Rahba Hospital will share with the rest of the Seha facilities provides doctors and nurses with real-time patient information and access to evidence-based protocols designed to improve clinician knowledge and prevent medical errors."

Healthcare information technology is improving care for patients at Al Rahba hospital in a number of ways. By using Cerner Millennium solutions, Al Rahba doctors and nurses have been able to:

• Eliminate illegible, handwritten orders from doctors by placing orders electronically;
• Reduce the chance of medication errors by providing knowledge-based alerts that warn pharmacists and physicians of harmful interactions; and
• Enhance clinicians' access to important patient information by making radiology images and lab results available in the EMR, viewable at numerous computer terminals throughout the hospital and remotely from their home office.

"By working together, Seha, Al Rahba Hospital and Cerner have been able to quickly and efficiently optimize and automate Al Rahba's clinical processes," said Richard Berner, Cerner Middle East Vice President and General Manager. "Cerner is proud to work with these visionary organizations to help improve patient care, clinician satisfaction and further connect the UAE health community through the use of technology."

By selecting Cerner, Seha chose an HIT supplier with a proven track record. Cerner technology helps healthcare organizations streamline operations and improve the quality of care they deliver to patients.

"Seha has committed to implementing a system-wide EMR for all of its hospitals and clinics as part of its vision to create a connected healthcare system and to improve the quality of care in Abu Dhabi." said John R. Hawkins, Seha information and technology director. "Seha chose Cerner as its HIT supplier because of Cerner's ability to support big scale implementations and its proven expertise in delivering innovative healthcare technology solutions around the world."