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Qatar’s Minister of Public Health, Her Excellency Dr. Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari, today attended Hamad Medical Corporation’s official launch of the Ambulance Service’s new high-tech patient transport vehicles, fleet management system and electronic patient clinical record.
The combination of these three advances strengthens both the Ambulance Service’s emergency and non-emergency services. In addition to responding to more than 200,000 emergency calls each year, HMC’s Ambulance Service also carries out over 50,000 non-emergency transfers of patients. These non-emergency transfers include moving patients from one HMC hospital to another, as well as transporting patients with mobility problems from their home to a hospital for their appointment.
Part of the HMC Ambulance Service non-emergency fleet, the new vehicles provide patients with a more comfortable and pleasant experience as well as advancing the quality of medical care that ambulance crews are able to offer.
The advanced fleet management system, the CareMonX Patient Transport Services Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) and CareMonX Mobile Data Terminal systems, manages all call-taking, triaging and dispatching activities for scheduled services involving patient transport and Mobile Healthcare Service home visits throughout Qatar.
The electronic patient clinical record improves the way in which patient information is communicated between clinical teams and provides a complete end-to-end patient record.
“The advances launched today highlight our commitment to continuously expanding and upgrading the full spectrum of services across the entire health sector,” said Her Excellency Dr. Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari. “The life-saving nature of the Ambulance Service’s emergency response teams is well documented, but less well known is the role that the non-emergency teams fulfil. I am delighted to officially launch this new vehicle fleet and both the management and patient record technology, and to highlight the important contribution of the Ambulance Service to the daily lives of many patients,” explained Her Excellency.
During the official launch event, senior Ambulance Service leaders explained the key benefits of the new vehicles and technology systems to those in attendance. There was also an opportunity for Her Excellency and other delegates to explore the vehicles first hand and get a closer look at the technology.
In his presentation at the launch, Mr. Ahmed Al Bakri, Operations Manager for the Ambulance Service, highlighted the key features of the vehicles: “Ensuring the highest level of patient comfort has been central to the design of the vehicles. Wide windows with lower frosting offer patients an enhanced outside view, fridges to accommodate water are installed - especially beneficial for dialysis patients - while a climate controlled passenger compartment, USB charging points and WiFi hot spots all enhance the patient experience.”
“As well as improving patients’ comfort and experience, the new vehicles are fitted with state-of-the-art medical equipment, including multiple oxygen sources, and have the ability to transfer two patients together,” said Mr. Al Bakri.
Executive Director of the Healthcare Coordination Service, Mr. Thomas Reimann, explained the benefits of the new technology systems to those in attendance: “With the go-live of the management system, we are able to track our ambulance units more accurately, allowing us to better manage capacity in real time and plan future resources more efficiently,” stated Mr. Reimann.
“The electronic patient clinical record enables clinical information about the patient’s condition to be sent through by our paramedics to the hospital receiving team while the patient is still being transported in the ambulance. Then, on arrival at the hospital, the receiving nurse is able to scan the barcode on the electronic patient clinical record and the patient’s data is automatically added to the Clinical Information System. The end result of these new technologies is a more efficient and effective service for our patients,” Mr. Reimann explained.
“Understanding the specific requirements of our various patient groups is of great importance to us,” stated Chief Executive Officer of HMC’s Ambulance Service, Dr. Robert Owen. “For this reason, we communicated extensively with our patients when planning this new fleet to ensure we fully understood their needs and could deliver vehicles that would meet, and even exceed, their expectations.”
“The new patient transport vehicles, combined with the information technology software for both the fleet management and the patient record, strengthen our ability to offer the very highest standard of care for the many thousands of patients who rely on our services,” said Dr. Owen.
