Corniche Hospital and Cerner Launch Closed-Loop Medication Safety Initiative in United Arab Emirates

Published on Monday, 18 June 2012 09:15 Written by TradersHuddle Staff

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, June 18, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cerner (Nasdaq:CERN) and Corniche Hospital recently introduced the positive patient identification (PPID) program to improve patient health outcomes and safety by combining Cerner's health care technology and data management capability with the hospital's clinical proficiency and safe medication administration policy.

Corniche Hospital is Cerner's first client with a full closed-loop medication administration in the United Arab Emirates.

The PPID program, which is compliant with Joint Commission International (JCI) standards, is a barcode technology with a handheld device that scans a patient's wristband and medication to validate information with the patient's electronic health record administered by Cerner Millennium^®. These validation steps provide patient safety in treatment delivery, without compromising a patient's privacy.

"Thanks to the closed-loop medication process, medication is administered at the patient's bedside, ensuring the 'five rights' are identified on one single screen: right patient, right medication, right dosage, right time, and right route," said Dr. Mariam Al Mazrouei, Deputy CEO, Corniche Hospital. "Under the directives of Abu Dhabi Health Services (SEHA)'s Health Information Systems Committee, Corniche Hospital, together with Cerner, is proud of this achievement which aims to strengthen the quality of our patient care and reduce human error."

The new program provides a closed-loop-medication process to ensure automated validation of medications and patient identity matching. It has been rolled out to one nursing unit of Corniche Hospital. This proof-of-concept has qualified the hospital for the Stage 6 certification recognition in the HIMSS Analytics Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM).

The HIMSS 6 award was presented to Corniche Hospital during the EMRAM Awards Ceremony at the annual HIMSS Middle East Conference & Leadership Summit in Abu Dhabi on the 20^th of May, 2012. The award was received by George Yacoub, Corniche Hospital Chief Information Officer and Robert Pickton, SEHA Group Chief Information Officer. Taking this achievement to the next level, the hospital is now working on deploying the system to all clinical areas.

"We are very proud to achieve another major advantage in enhancing patient safety by developing and implementing this advanced technical solution," said George Yacoub, Chief Information Officer, Corniche Hospital. "This has truly been a collaborative effort between the IT and Pharmacy departments at Corniche Hospital, colleagues from SEHA IT as well as our partners, Cerner and CareFusion."

Over the past year, Corniche Hospital has rolled out numerous technologies to automate the entire medication management processes, including procurement, physicians orders (prescribing), order verification and automation of the dispensing/preparation processes.

This comprehensive set of solutions works across SEHA's system by drawing information from the unified database, Cerner Millennium^®. This improves patient care by:

• Enhancing care: Clinicians can quickly reference a patient's medical history, alerting them to possible risks or allergies
• Improving outcomes, efficiency and accuracy: Gives pharmacists access to patient history and physical records, home medication and lab results
• Minimizing errors: Ensures correct patient, correct medication, correct dose, route and correct time of administration 

"Cerner considers this collaboration a major milestone in our relationship with SEHA and Corniche Hospital, that goes back to more than six years and we are proud that they have been recognized with their HIMSS Stage 6 award," said Greg White, Vice President and Managing Director, Cerner Middle East and Africa. "Together we are developing a health management platform which allows us to deliver the best integrated and proactive care for our communities."

Corniche Hospital is Cerner's second client in the Middle East to achieve the HIMSS Stage 6 designation.

About Cerner

Cerner is contributing to the systemic change of health and care delivery. For more than 30 years Cerner has been executing its vision to make health care safer and more efficient. We started with the foundation of digitizing paper processes and now offer the most comprehensive array of information software, professional services, medical device integration, remote hosting and employer health and wellness services. Cerner systems are used by everyone from individual consumers, to single-doctor practices, hospitals, employers and entire countries. Taking what we've learned over more than three decades, Cerner is building on the knowledge that is in the system to support evidence-based clinical decisions, prevent medical errors and empower patients in their care.

Cerner^® solutions are licensed by approximately 9,300 facilities around the world, including more than 2,650 hospitals; 3,750 physician practices; 40,000 physicians; 500 ambulatory facilities, such as laboratories, ambulatory centers, cardiac facilities, radiology clinics and surgery centers; 800 home health facilities; 40 employer sites and 1,600 retail pharmacies.

Certain trademarks, service marks and logos (collectively, the "Marks") set forth herein are owned by Cerner Corporation and/or its subsidiaries in the United States and certain other countries throughout the world. All other non-Cerner Marks are the property of their respective owners. Nasdaq:CERN. For more information about Cerner, please visit www.cerner.com, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

About Corniche Hospital

Corniche Hospital is a Joint Commission International-accredited health care facility. The largest maternity and neonatal healthcare facility in the UAE, Corniche is managed by Johns Hopkins Medicine International (JHI). It is owned and operated by Abu Dhabi Health Services Company PJSC (SEHA). The 299-bed (including 64 NICU cots), Corniche Hospital provides facilities for more than 8,000 births and over 120,000 outpatient visits a year.

Corniche Hospital is one of the three hospitals in the UAE under the management of the Baltimore, Md.-based JHI. Tawam Hospital, a 477-bed tertiary care facility in Al Ain, and Al Rahba Hospital, a 135-bed community facility just outside Abu Dhabi City, also are managed by Johns Hopkins Medicine International and are accredited by the Joint Commission International.

CONTACT: Cerner Middle East Media Contact:
         Vivian Gendy
         +971 4 375 4894
         
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         Cerner Investors Contact:
         Allan Kells
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         Corniche Hospital Contact:
         Almas Naseem
         +971 2 6965597
         
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