Ahmed Al Douei, Director of WAREED Project, emphasized that the ministry of health completely finalized the entry of 70 thousand medical records electronically in Sheikh Khelifa Hospital in Al Ajman, Al Qassimi and Kuwait Hospitals in Sharjah, Shaam and Obaidallah Hospitals in RAK. Around 5000 medical files were transferred into electronic records. Additionally, the system will be applied in the following hospitals: Um Al Qiwain, Al Dhaid, Kalba, Masafi and Dibba.

Al Douei emphasized that the ministry is currently working on strengthening electricity in Khorfakkan and Saqer Hospitals while finalized the development and progress of the infrastructure in Al Baraha and Al Amal Hospitals in Dubai. It is expected to apply WAREED system in all the ministry’s hospitals by mid 2012 to be followed by implementation in the 64 health centers. The total cost of the project is Dhs 250 million.

Three Phases
The project includes 3 phases beginning with e-connection between health centers of the ministry while phase two will connect both HAAD and DHA with the ministry of health. Phase three will connect all three with the private sectors to allow all patients have one health file in the UAE just after the issuance of the electronic health information systems.

He said: “We faced lots of difficulties and problems at the beginning because most of the ministry’s hospitals lack the required infrastructure while others do not have enough halls for training the medical, technical and nursing staff. Therefore we had to make few expansion procedures to complete the training programs for the required staff”.

He also explained that the hospitals which implemented WAREED enter all the patients’ data electronically now noting that all the old files will be dealt with after the end of the project but will take some time especially that there are thousand files that have been collected years ago in these hospitals.

Services
Al Douei stated that the services of the project include appointments known as “mawaeed”, a new service to ensure the medical appointments secure process. The new service will shorten the long queues and procedures for getting appointments in the ministry’s hospitals. Outpatient clinic visitors can communicate with the hospitals’ call center easily to register the appointment. The new service will also assist doctors avoid using paper works in their prescriptions while entering their data electronically.