IN healthcare, data is crucial, and time is almost priceless. Digitization can not only provide the correct information at the time of need, but also free up time to look after more important tasks such as caring for the patients. Hence, to serve its 28.2 million citizens, the provision of advanced healthcare is a prime focus of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. One of the core components of the healthcare plan, in line with Vision 2030, is the implementation of electronic medical records (EMR) in all hospitals across KSA.

A recent white paper published by Nuance Communications and HIMMS Europe studies the status quo of clinical documentations in hospitals to appraise how digitization can be rolled to meet the requirements for Vision 2030. The white paper is based on the 2016 HIMMS analytics study ‘Health Market Structure’ HIS Maturity and Clinical Documentation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,’ as well as 109 interviewees from the Kingdom itself.

“The digital transformation is one of the major steps to a better and more efficient patient care. KSA has a very strong vision and has launched great initiatives to make this happen. A digital transformation is also a change management exercise, where all stakeholder need to work together. Clinical speech recognition supports healthcare professionals significantly to achieve their goals, reduce the administration burden and capture narrative patient data,” said Milko Jovanoski, international healthcare marketing manager, Nuance Communications.

The study found that of the 109 interviewees, 48 percent of the respondents plan to improve their current clinical documentation solutions with 46 percent planning to invest into digital dictation solutions with speech recognition. Furthermore, 81 percent of the respondents mentioned having an EMR system in the hospital; of which a mere 18 percent use EMR only in certain departments. This shows that there is a good chance that the Saudi plan to increase unified EMR from 0 percent to 70 percent is a possibility.

On the other hand, there seems to be a lack of incentive for many clinics that still operate on paper to move to digital. Many have concerns relating to technical issues, lack of training and data security — which are also causes of dissatisfaction among those who do use the digital system extensively.

In the words of the Executive Director of King Fahd Medical City, "Currently, many of the systems have a very rudimentary Hospital Information System (HIS), which is there for patient registration, insurance, billing and scheduling but there is no great interest in moving from HIS to an EHR system. We are in the middle of the journey."

Nonetheless, the importance of digital transformation is undeniable. It can bring about many positive impacts, most of which can be seen in the increased productivity and time of caregivers. Currently, a large chunk of their time is spent in paper documentation, which not only takes time to file in, but also to find in time of need.

Cloud computing is a solution that is gaining awareness. It is easy to see how it could play a key role in unifying medical standards in accordance to the government’s plan and make data available anywhere when required. With that in effect, the records could potentially be available for any hospital where the patient wishes to seek treatment. Naturally, the timely availability and correctness of data is vital to provide appropriate treatment to patients and EMR on cloud platforms can go a long way in addressing this concern. Even though the technology is not fully understood, there are apprehensions regarding the security of data, which is one of the biggest challenges to overcome. To address this issue, cloud computing and mobility will be the two central areas for ICT investments.

On average, two thirds of the respondents said that they document more than 10 pages and create more than 126 reports per day. The previous year’s study found that doctors in Germany spend almost 44 percent of the working time in documenting, compared to their estimated of 35 percent. This came as a surprise but also as an eye opener to the amount of time that could be spent in providing better treatment rather than admin work.

Additionally, documentation is a costly financial pressure on hospitals, as records need to be updated and productive time that could go into treating more patients is spent in documenting records. In an estimate, using dictation devices to document data is on average 26 percent faster than written records. This could save the much-needed time for doctors and nurses to divert their attention to providing better care.

Transforming the healthcare sector with digital devices and software is certainly a welcome change that could advance the sector to meet international healthcare standards.

Frank Fritzsche, research and advisory services manager, HIMSS Europe GmbH, HIMSS Analytics, added: “Our research into the EMR adoption across Saudi Arabia revealed that healthcare institutions see the Vision 2030 as a key driver for the healthcare sector development, especially in relation to IT implementation. Given its current EMR adoption, with advanced EMRs in major cities and handwritten records in rural clinics, the country overall has still some way to go to achieve the goals set for 2020 in this respect. There is no question about the potential of digital documentation to improve the efficiency of medical resources. And with respondents only being slightly or moderately satisfied with their current documentation solution and plans to invest into this technology, this will be an interesting space to watch.

At the end of the day, digitization is necessary and a justified priority to make the healthcare sector fit for the future. It’s about time that timely availability of data and time spent in caring for people are given due diligence. The largest GCC country has set an ambitious plan to meet its Vision 2030 and make it future-ready. With the increasing advancement in technology, there is no doubt that with proper planning, training and implementation of digital programs, KSA’s healthcare sector would be on par with that of the world’s leading nations. — SG

(To download a copy of the white paper “Saudi Arabia: How clinical documentation can help achieve Vision 2030,” visit www.engage.nuance.com/vision-2030-healthcare-kingdom-saudi-arabia.)