EJMS

Abstract

Background: The Electronic System for integrated Health Information (e-SIHI) has been implemented in King Khalid University Hospital (KKUH) since May-2015 for all Hospital Departments. The Quality Management Department (QMD) has conducted an audit after two weeks of implementation of the system (e-SIHI) in order to measure the compliance for the system. The auditing was done for Outpatient Clinic (OPD), Admission Disk and some inpatient areas, the auditing tool included many variables to be measured. The QMD found many areas which require improvement after implementation, for example, prolonged time of documentation for each patient. The main aim of this study is to demonstrate that the e-SIHI is beneficial for the patients regarding safety. Methodology: Study design: Document analysis. The study was carried out at KKUH, Riyadh during 2016. The data had been retrieved and analyzed from Electronic Occurrence Various Reports (E-OVR) and documentation reports by QMD and Phlebotomy Unit to compare the results pre- and post-implementation of e-SIHI. Results: The comparative analysis of the effect of e-SIHI on patient safety in KKUH reveals that it is an effective tool for improving clinical documentation, medication reconciliation, and specimen labeling in phlebotomy. But the system has not been able to reduce the medication errors because the numbers are still on increase after the system implementation. Conclusion: The Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) are an effective medical tool to enhance patient safety. The effective clinical documentation will assist in eliminating medical errors, leading to an improvement in patient safety, but the hospital still requires improvement in the system implementation to enhance patient safety. The researcher recommends that the management of KKUH should sponsor a training program for all healthcare providers for an effective management of EMRs.