When COVID-19 hit the United Arab Emirates, the Ministry of Health and Prevention (MOHAP) needed a new way to gather information from private hospitals to coordinate a national response.
A Cerner ITWorksSM managed services team helped the organization create a web form that allows the country’s private health systems to report COVID-19 information, including patient flow and mortality, to MOHAP.
“Before this work, interoperability with the private sector in exchanging communicable diseases data was not readily available,” said Alya Harbi, director, statistic and research center. “It took us hours to update the indicators. But with the webpage, it’s much easier.”
Coordinating a national response
The new web form allows private hospitals to easily report its patients’ current status to MOHAP in a digital workflow. MOHAP and other government entities use the data to help coordinate a nationwide response to the pandemic. In one instance, leaders looked at the data to ensure the country had enough ventilators.
“We know, according to published research, of the high mortality in western countries due to lack of ventilation,” Harbi said. “The data submitted in the web form gives us a view of the present situation and that helps decide whether we need to procure more machines.”
Understanding patient flow
The web form also helped MOHAP leaders understand patient flow.
“The form can capture the entire encounter and monitor each patient’s progress,” Harbi said. “One day this person is not in the ICU, and the next day they are. We can pull an accurate, updated record on the spot.”
MOHAP created dashboards to make it easy for leaders to quickly understand different situations within the pandemic and the best way to react.
Looking ahead to a day when the COVID-19 pandemic has lessened, Harbi thinks MOHAP will likely continue to collect other data from private hospitals in a similar fashion.
“We’re working with the preventive medicine team and looking into how to maintain reporting for the future,” she said. “Sustainability is very important.”
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