By ; Saber Mohamed 

King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre (KFSH&RC) has collaborated with Cerner during the COVID-19 pandemic to fully upgrade its Integrated Clinical Information System (ICIS) to the latest available Cerner software version.

The conversion of this code upgrade broke new ground by being supported entirely by virtual means; ushering in a world class patient experience. KFSH&RC manages three facilities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and plays the role of a tertiary health care provider for specialized medicine services such as oncology, cardiology, transplants and fertility, with approximately one million outpatient visits each year.

This strategic upgrade will enable KFSH&RC to continue innovating care delivery and hospital operations. In addition, it has yielded significant enhancements in the system performance of KFSH&RC’s ICIS with the Cerner Millennium® electronic health record.

“This pandemic has forcefully disrupted the day-to-day operations of healthcare organizations and put pressure on all providers to create novel ways in keeping patients at the center of health care.

Physical distancing and staff safety combined with the value realization and impact this upgrade would have on KFSH&RC’s healthcare delivery model forced us to rise to the challenge,” said Osama Al Swailem, MD, MA, Chief Information Officer of KFSH&RC. “We had confidence that our healthcare IT staff, clinical department leaders and Cerner would come up with an innovative approach in getting our system upgraded with minimal downtime.

” “This virtual upgrade has exposed the KFSH&RC informatics staff to a new delivery model,” Al Swailem explained. “In addition to the hardware and software enhancements we had with the upgrade, this project aimed at continually enhancing the patient and caregiver experiences, increasing safety, reducing cost and the elimination of manual processes .

I have challenged all that were involved in continuing this innovative way of thinking to help define the new-norm in healthcare.

” The upgrade has introduced more than 500 software enhancements, including: automation of oncology documentation and computerized physician order entry to enable better management of oncology care, digitization of transplant documentation, including integration with national and international transplant registries, barcoding of medication administration, blood products and supply usage, deployment of the Pharmacy Patient Monitor to improve Clinical Pharmacist usability; a full printing technology upgrade to enable faster printing at higher quality and with greater formatting flexibility; a new viewer for staff to view patient records during planned and unplanned downtimes, device connectivity advancements to enable better bedside medical device integration, improved system connectivity and performance by approximately 49% for KFSH&RC staff; and new revenue cycle management capabilities related to billing and insurance claims.

Moreover, the KFSH&RC roadmap projects will significantly increase the availability of valuable data for analytics, such as chemotherapy timings, oncology protocol compliance, transplants survival rates, medication administration information through bar coding and integration with supply chain systems.

This will empower KFSH&RC to further personalize care plans and proactively manage the health of its patients.

“With more than 200 go-live team members, KFSH&RC and Cerner combined efforts to ensure a well-planned communication, an execution plan of the implementation process and a clear strategic roadmap for the next journey post the upgrade,” said Alaa Adel, Managing Director of Cerner Middle East and Africa. “We are honored to have been part of another key milestone at KFSH&RC and looking forward to more successes in the near future.

” As part of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, KFSH&RC is undergoing a significant transformation program aligned with its strategic vision of becoming a not-for-profit independent foundation and a world leader in health care through excellence and innovation.

The program will provide the autonomy and flexibility needed to develop the organization’s existing services and resources as well as explore new opportunities.