In yet another step towards replacing paperwork with electronic files in medical facilities, the Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) has introduced a Clinical Information System (CIS) at Al Gharafa Health Centre.

This comes after completing the first level at Al Daayen Healthe Centre and Al Khor Hospital, which included a new electronic system for patients’ medical records to be viewed by physicians across every healthcare facility. 

PHCC said yesterday it would now implement the second level of the project at Al Gharafa Health Centre to further improve the quality of care provided there.

The CIS is  an important project for the PHCC as being part of Qatar’s National Health Strategy which was launched in 2011. PHCC is planning to expand the CIS to all health centres and HMC hospitals over the next three years. The next implementation will take place at Omar Bin Khattab Health Centre shortly after Al Gharafa Health Centre.

The objectives of implementing the CIS are improving healthcare quality and continuity, providing better services for patients regarding registration and appointments, recording medication details of patients, providing patients with medical information at all PHCC and Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) facilities, avoiding the loss of any medical records and providing safer healthcare for patients.

As the changes are incorporated, the staff at primary healthcare centres may need to collect more information from patients to record them in the new system. At the initial stage, the new process may cause some delay and, for that, PHCC has requested all patients and visitors to be more co-operative with the staff at Al Gharafa Health Centre.

The CIS includes an electronic medical record and a digital copy of all patients’ information, allowing authorised physicians and nurses at PHCC and HMC to access the information. The main purpose of this system is to replace paper medical records with electronic information.

Further, the CIS involves the transfer of financial and administrative work to a comprehensive electronic system that ensures speed and accuracy and helps minimise errors that crop up while taking down the medical records manually.

The system enables patients to access medical services and also track and review their appointments. Besides, it lets patients who will be treated outside Qatar transfer their files through the Internet so that they can be consulted by a physician in another country.

Dr Juliet Ibrahim, PHCC executive director of Clinical Affairs and vice-chairperson of the Steering Committee for medical information systems, stressed the importance of implementing the CIS at all primary healthcare centres in partnership with HMC.

The system will allow authorised staff, such as physicians, nurses, pharmacists, nursing technicians, laboratory and X-ray personnel, immediate access to the requested medical information about a patient’s condition. This will enhance the quality of healthcare according to the information entered by the staff, the statement adds.

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