King Khalid University Hospital Saudi Arabia selects Health Matrix to implement Datix for patient safety and risk management

KKUH is the first university hospital in Saudi Arabia to use Datix to manage quality and plans to roll out the software to over 5000 staff across all departments, including nursing and administration.

The hospital's adoption of Datix software plays a key role in KKUH's next application for accreditation from Accreditation Canada, due in 2014, when it is aiming to achieve the highest level. The accreditation programme is an internationally recognised standard for quality healthcare services.

Dr Farheen Shaikh, Director of Quality Management Department (QM) at King Khalid University Hospital said, "The leadership of King Khalid University Hospital is committed to providing high quality and compassionate healthcare to the Saudi community. We encourage and support the culture of safety and quality throughout our organisation. The adoption of an electronic system to manage quality will be key to our success to deliver on our vision and mission and achieve the highest level of accreditation. Datix software is proven within the healthcare community internationally and provides many options that meet our requirements both in the Quality department and across the hospital. The professionalism and training that Health Matrix offers will be essential for us as we roll out the system to all our staff."

Datix delivers safety, risk and governance through a number of integrated software modules and will replace the existing in-house system, significantly reducing the time spent by the QM Department staff having to extract data manually. The hospital is initially implementing Datix Incident reporting and Dashboards, making it easier to interpret data for users at all levels of the organisation. Staff will access Datix via an icon on the desktop. Senior management will be able to review incidents easier and faster from all operational areas of the hospital, including medication, technology and laboratories. Future plans include the roll out of additional modules including complaint handling, risk register and patient experience.

"Datix is committed to improving patient safety and our web-based software is widely used within both public and private healthcare organisations worldwide. The solution provides the safety, risk and governance elements required to enable an organisation like King Khalid University Hospital to have a comprehensive oversight of its risk management activities and ensure quality of all of its delivered healthcare services," said Jonathan Hazan, Chief Executive at Datix.

Abdul Rahman Qasim, Chief Executive Officer at Health Matrix concluded, "Healthcare is a high risk industry and the harm done to patients by healthcare organisations remains a significant public health issue in many countries. Our passion is to work with healthcare organisations to adopt IT solutions that have been developed to improve the quality of care delivered. We look forward to working with King Khalid University Hospital to implement Datix software and support their quality management programme."