UAE, December 23, 2017- The Ministry of Health and Prevention has automated the Microbiology Infection Control reports to prevent clinical errors and save time. The step will also help update the electronic health information system ‘Wareed,’ a centralized database that not only quickly and accurately manages patient data but also provides public healthcare services in accordance with the best global practices.

H.E Awadh Seghayer Al Ketbi, Assistant Undersecretary for Support Services, Ministry of Health and Prevention, said: “The Microbiology Infection Control feature helps contain infected cases and implement faster preventive and treatment procedures. The man hours saved post implementation of the feature is 3,000 minutes/50 hours per month across the Ministry-run hospitals. The process will also continuously update the ‘Wareed’ system in line with our efforts to further develop the healthcare sector, advance the local health system, and establish an automated processes and procedures in all Ministry-run facilities in Dubai and the Northern Emirates.”

Mubarka Ibrahim, Director –Health Information Systems Department of the Ministry of Health and Prevention, said: “The new smart feature enables effective infection control as it automatically monitors all laboratory reports and inspects bacterial infection cases. It activates the alert system if it discovers bacterial infection, allowing medical practitioners to take the right action. Prior to going live, there was a time lag between the identification of the infectious diseases and communicating it to the infection control department. Now, the automation will reduce this time lag and help implement prompt and effective infection control management system. This will also prevent human errors as manual documentation is usually prone to clinical mistakes.”

“Doctors nowadays use the Microbiology Infection Control report to determine which patients need to be monitored for infection control.  Patients qualify for the report based on their demographics, procedural information, report responses, and susceptibility results or general laboratory results. The report contains patient information and laboratory results.  Once the patient qualifies, the report is automatically printed for the Infection Control Department at a scheduled time,” Ibrahim added.