Emirates Health Services partners with Oracle Health to advance clinical device integration
EHS and Oracle Health partnered to improve efficiency between medical devices and patient electronic medical records, achieving improved outcomes across the entire spectrum of care.
“Patient impact, safety, and prevention are not just buzzwords—they are the guiding principles that should inform every decision we make.”
To support world-class quality care, Emirates Health Services (EHS), UAE, has a robust healthcare strategy that spans its entire operational spectrum. The organization has implemented many initiatives in its goal to reach “Zero Harm” for patients, providers, and frontline workers. These require intricate, streamlined operations that encompass various venues of care provision, order flows, and technological applications.
One such initiative is advanced medical device integration, a process that employs the capabilities of Oracle Health’s electronic health record (EHR) to receive vital clinical information from patient medical devices with speed and precision.
As a healthcare establishment, we have a sacred duty to protect and promote the health and well-being of our patients. From the research lab to the bedside, we must be tireless in our pursuit of innovative solutions and best practices that deliver the highest levels of safety and quality of care.
EHS partnered with Oracle Health to automate the process of capturing and storing critical medical device data, including vital signs, blood gas, blood glucose, and other monitored values. These devices range from bedside monitors and patient- attachable devices to point-of-care sample analyses. The goal was to implement automated transmission from these external sources directly to the patient’s EHR in near real-time.
"The partnership between Emirates Health Services and Oracle Health is a powerful example of how collaboration can drive innovation and improve healthcare outcomes,” says Amna Al Hammadi, acting director of health information systems. “By combining EHS's deep domain expertise and Oracle Health technology, the two organizations have created a powerful platform that can help transform healthcare delivery in the UAE and beyond. This partnership demonstrates the immense value of cross-sector collaboration and the potential for technology to revolutionize the healthcare industry."
For each type of device, the team implemented hardware gateways and communication protocols. Integrations were achieved throughout different clinical areas across the entire network of EHS, including 17 hospitals and more than 70 primary health care centers.
By December of 2022, EHS achieved an integration total of 1,181 medical devices within its Oracle Health EHR, Wareed.[1]
This allowed for seamless communication and coordination among people, processes, and technology—improving efficiency and patient outcomes. By mitigating the risk of siloed, missed, or wrongly transcribed information, healthcare professionals have better support when making decisions for their patients, ultimately leading to a higher quality of care.
Additionally, synergy between medical devices and EHRs can help prevent adverse events by making pertinent clinical information readily accessible to healthcare providers. In turn, providers can make informed decisions and quickly respond to potential safety issues. During critical situations, this can have a lifesaving impact on treatment initiation and accuracy.
To further safeguard against the possibility of errors and inaccuracies, EHS created user interfaces for unique patient documentation. Patient identification and verification mechanisms were employed to achieve automated transmission through barcode scanning and ID bands. Compared against the general rates of error commonly reported as industry standard, EHS estimates approximately 30 million human transcription errors were prevented following implementation.2
Staff can benefit from reduced effort and time spent on manual data entry, elimination of delays in patient data documentation, and a comprehensive view of a patient's health status. Between January 2022 and December 2022, automated device integration replaced the manual transcription of approximately 160 million medical parameters,3 saving the equivalent time and labor of approximately 67 full-time employees time that year.4
Device integration in healthcare is continuously evolving, and its prospects are promising. The impacts of these factors are manifold and support UAE’s commitment to innovation as the foundation of life-quality and development.
“Only by remaining steadfast in our commitment to patients can we truly fulfill our mission to heal, comfort, and cure,” says Aysha Al Hamadi.
1 Based on data provided by Emirates Health Services generated between Jan 1, 2022, and Dec 31, 2022.
2 Based on data provided by Emirates Health Services generated between Jan 1, 2022, and Dec 31, 2022.
3 Based on data provided by Emirates Health Services generated between Jan 1, 2022, and Dec 31, 2022.
4 Based on data provided by Emirates Health Services generated between Jan 1, 2022, and Dec 31, 2022.