Establishing and developing (5) medical integrated reference cities:
Currently, a number of the medical cities projects is being implemented in the Kingdom's regions as an emphasis for the sound approach of this dear country's leaders regarding the citizens' health and safety of this dear people and providing the healthcare for them. These cities are seen as an addition to the system of the health services, and will deliver their services in the fourth level. They are linked to the population density and the professional quality measures in relation to the level of the healthcare provided. When finished, these cities will add 6200 reference beds.
The medical cities include expanding the King Fahad Medical City in Riyadh, serving the Central region; King Abdullah Medical City serving the Western region; King Faisal Medical City serving the Southern region; Prince Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Medical City serving the Northern region; and King Khalid Medical City serving the Eastern region. Further, these cities consist of a host of the specialized hospitals, oncology and nerve centers, complicated cardiac operations, radiation therapy, organ and eye transplant, and other rare specialties.
Hospital Projects:
During the blooming, prosperous reign if the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, May Allah protect him, the MOH carried through many health projects of medical cities, medical towers, and specialized medical centers which covered the entire Kingdom's regions and governorates. As such, during the few past years, (79) general and private hospitals were established and operated with 10835-bed-capacity. This brings the number of hospitals up to 279 ones, and in turn rising the number of beds up to 39840 ones at the end of 1434h. Currently, 147 hospitals and medical towers, accommodating for 3441 beds, are being carried out and launched. As a result, the MOH managed to increase the number of beds as double as they were five years ago. It is expected that at the end of the strategic plan in 1440, the total number of beds will reach up to over 73, 168 after these projects have finished, Allah willing.
Primary Healthcare Centers Projects:
In the past five years, the MOH established and operated 824 new primary healthcare centers, and currently, 827 health centers are being implemented. This totals 2259 primary healthcare centers till 1435h. Similarly, the MOH seeks to bring the number of these centers up to 2750 health centers at the end of the strategic plan.
The primary healthcare centers deliver 70% of the overall health serviced provided by the MOH which exerts tremendous efforts to achieve the satisfaction of those benefiting from its health services. To that effect, bodies within and outside the Kingdom conducted studies and researches to develop these services and to work around the health problems posing a challenge to the MOH, which are highlighted in the change of the disease pattern from infectious diseases to chronic ones. These services will greatly be upgraded after they are supported by specialized physicians and consultants in the primary healthcare services field.
According to the official statistics released by the MOH, the number of visits made by those frequenting the health centers amounted to 53, 6 million ones during 1434h.
Now, the primary healthcare centers provide more than 20 programs covering all the age groups. Lately, these programs have seen a qualitative addition, to the effect that the Youth and Ably-Bodied Health Program was introduced, as well as elderly care programs, to be added in to the existing programs such as the Childhood Care Program, Maternal Care Program, Adults' Care Program, Immunization Programs, Infectious Diseases Control Program, Psychological Health Program, Chronic Diseases Program, Therapeutic Services Program, and Sound Child Care Program, among others.
Specialized Medical Centers:
Such expansion involved establishing the qualitative specialized medical centers, to the effect that (9) cardiac surgery and diseases centers were established and equipped within the five past years. Further, three more centers are being built, as well as operating three newly-established centers this year. This brings the number of the cardiac disease surgery centers up to 15 ones.
Still, the MOH kick-started five specialized centers for treating tumors, and is planning to go up an oncology center in each of the Kingdom's regions.
Evermore, the past few years saw putting into operation and opening many of the specialized medical centers such as the opening of (143) kidney centers, (4021) dialysis units, (20) diabetes treatment centers, and (32) dental centers.
New Health and Administrative Programs:
The health services in the humanity kingdom witnessed a major turning point in the march of the health development in the Kingdom where the MOH introduced new qualitative programs, intended for serving the citizen and improving the MOH's performance, quality, and safety, restructuring, and collective corporate work; and recruiting the distinctive cadres. These developments were accompanied by initiating several departments, of the most prominent programs and departments:
Patients' Relations Program:
Since its establishment, several years ago, this Program kept on providing its services for the patients and their relatives. It was launched out of the MOH's desire to enhance and develop the process of communication between it and those benefiting from its services in the entire health facilities related to it. This is mirrored in solving their problems, facilitating the process of their getting the appropriate health service they are in need of, and survey their opinion on the level of the health services they get from the health services. This aims at avoiding any downsides or obstacles that may arise. Thus, the Program was initiated.
Among the Program's tasks is to develop the mechanisms of interaction with the users' health facilities in terms of the patients and their relatives in a manner that give them the opportunity to express their opinions and notes on the health services provided for them. It is also to prepare and develop the policies and work procedures related to the patients' relations and the mechanisms of interaction with the patients' complaints and their relatives and their notes. This aims at getting rid of all what results in the patients and their relatives' satisfaction. This Program employs 1200 employees within all the MOH's hospitals. To that effect, a hotline was created to receive the patients' complaints as well as a website to receive the patients' opinions and dotting the hospitals with the suggestion boxes.
Clinical Management Program:
The Program accomplished its objectives of which are providing a bed for the patient in the emergency and ordinary cases, making the most of the available resources, coordinating regarding receiving and referring the illness cases, and assessing the results of the Program's activities and the need for increasing the number of beds. Similarly, the bed rotation rose by 20% since the Program was put into effect in 1430h.
One-Day Surgery Program:
This Program managed to improve the rate of the one-day surgeries to the effect that it jumped from 2% in 1430h to 42% in 1435h. Meanwhile, the number of the one day surgery operations conducted last year.1434h, reached up to 65,305 surgical ones. As a result, this contributed to increasing the bed use efficiency and lessening patient's detention period. In a similar fashion, launching this Program led to re-operating the hundreds of beds that fell into disuse in 1431 and was instrumental in transferring thousands of the patients suffering from chronic diseases and detained within the hospitals to the Home Medicine Program.
In the meantime, the MOH consider calculating the proportion of the bed numbers compared to the number of population in the entire Kingdom's regions, in order to reach the national rate: three beds per 1000 people; and unifying it all over the Kingdom's regions within the next five years.
Home Medicine Program:
This Program enabled the MOH to provide affordable, decent home healthcare services for the patients in need of them. It also enhanced the contribution of the patients' families to taking care of them until they recover in a manner that maintain their dignity without any inconvenience, and results in saving the hospitals' beds for new patients needing them badly. As such, the medical team pays visits to the patients qualified for this service periodically, such as those in need of the palliative care or respiratory care, as well as the diabetics , the pressure ulcer patients, the wounded, patients in need of tube feeding, or nerve system injury and stroke patients.
Similarly, the Program provides the supportive medical devices and supplies according to the illness case, as well as the support and health education for the patient and their family. These tasks take place according to a mechanism and specific work tasks for the medical teams, and in line with what is applied in the domestic and world medical centers.
So far, more than 33,000 patients have benefited from the services of the Program. It also provides its services for a host of the chronic diseases, strokes, paralysis, psychological and neurological diseases, and aging diseases.
Medical Crew Follow-up Program:
The Medical Crew Follow-up Program is made up of a physician team making visits to the hospitals with the aim of following up the medical team performance in terms of the physicians'' productivity, patients' operation postponement, avoiding any delaying in medicine redemption, patient admission, or device failure, and neonatal care. Also, the team makes sure that the hospital performed its tasks properly. Another program is assigned for detecting the medical errors. One more program is meant for the hospital accreditation. All the MOH's hospitals subject to its accreditation, and the world standards it applies. At the end of the current year and at the beginning of the next year, some hospitals will be accredited, Allah willing.
Visiting Physician Program:
This Program was instrumental in addressing the shortage in both the rare specialties and subspecialties, enhancing the healthcare services provided for the citizens in the regions where they exist, and diminishing the obstacles some patients suffer when frequenting the central hospitals. This is through recruiting a distinctive constellation of world and domestic consulting physicians holding high qualifications to work for a number of the MOH's hospitals in the entire Kingdom's regions. This comes when the MOH has difficulty and limitations, currently, permanently contracting with consulting physicians in some specialties for their rarity.
Still, the Program worked on recruiting the consulting physicians based upon two pivots: first pivot, the domestic visiting consulting physicians; as it succeeded in recruiting distinctive constellation of domestic consulting physicians. As such, the domestic expertise came in handy delivering the health services the citizens in need of in their domicile. The Second pivot pertains to the foreign visiting physicians; the number of those temporarily recruited reached up to (3330) consulting physicians from all the world's states, with the entire subspecialties. They were distributed to more than 50 cities in the Kingdom.
"Ihalati" Program:
Within the framework of the MOH's efforts in terms of delivering excellent services in the nick time, the "Ihalati" Program was introduced, and it aims at transferring the illness cases among the Kingdom's hospitals virtually in any city in the Kingdom. It is a national project benefiting the entire different health sectors, as well as guaranteeing that the work flows virtually swift and without causing any inconvenience to anyone. Such a Program served over (95,000) cases by full fleet of ambulances made up of 2200 ones, in addition to drawing on the aerial medical evacuation services.
(937) Service:
The MOH launched the emergency communication center, and it works 24 hours through the week for serving the patients, providing the ambulatory services, and meeting the patient's needs. Similarly, the number of the cases it handled amounted to (1434404) ones.
Dialysis Services Purchasing from the Private Sector Program:
During 1435h, the dialysis services purchasing from the private sector
Program was awarded to two world companies in three phases. This in turn makes the service include the MOH-related patients benefiting from the dialysis with two types: hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis included. To that effect, SR 1, 9 billion has been spent to secure the dialysis services.
Breast Cancer Early Screening Project:
The Project aims to encourage 45-year-old and over women to conduct breast cancer early screening, with the aim of detecting the cases in their early stages. This Project was put into effect in Riyadh as a first phase, and it targets 10 thousand women. By the same token, it is to take effect in the entire Kingdom's regions as a second phase, making it a national program comprising the entire Kingdom's women.
Developing Patients' Medical Registers Program:
Further, the MOH worked on setting standards and policies for dealing with the patients' medical registers, and raising the level of the performance. Thus, it has been finalized setting the standards and policies regarding developing the patients' medical file and unifying its structure and content in the entire MOH's facilities. This also includes unifying the medical models and developing the policies and procedures in terms of health with them. In a similar fashion, the MOH adopted the project of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), rendering the names of diseases and protocols of dealing with them unified in the entire Kingdom's facilities in the manner applied worldwide.
National Health Survey:
Apart from its role in delivering the health services, the MOH has not overlooked aspects no less significance such as measurement. As such, the MOH in collaboration Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation if University of Washington with has finalized the first phase of the national survey, and recently the results have come out. Meanwhile, in the next few months, the MOH will launch the second phase of the field study that is to sample 500 people. This is intended to identify the ways of risk factors spread, causing the non-communicable diseases in the Saudi community. It also aims to provide the latest information on the risk factors behind the non-communicable diseases, in order to develop the appropriate health plans and pinpoint the futile health needs for treating the non-communicable diseases. Similarly, this study in its second phase is the most extensive of its kind worldwide.
Workforce and Training:
The MOH signed a number of agreements with the specialized bodies with the aim of training its staff such as the Public Administration and Health Affairs Institute of the National Guard Health Affairs, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, and Saudi Heart Association. In a similar fashion, a MOH-related training center has been established, and a self-contained program for preparing leaders has been launched.
As regards, the international and domestic scholarships, 5081 MOH-related cadres have been trained in the last year.
Quality Assurance:
The MOH is keen on delivering high-quality health services, to the effect that 52 hospitals have been accredited by the Central Board for Accreditation of Health Institutions (CBAHI). Currently, 38 hospitals are underway to be accredited. Similarly, 22 hospitals earned the accreditation certificate from the American Hospital. Association. Further, a contact has been signed with the American National Accreditation Board (ANAB) to have 14 hospitals subjected to evaluation. The hospitals accredited apply 1200 standards.
As part of the Primary Healthcare Centers Program, 100 health centers as well as seven regional laboratories across the Kingdom are being accredited by the CBAHI,
Preventive Medicine:
The MOH initiated the Public Health Agency, and this was followed by introducing specialized departments for monitoring the infectious and parasitic diseases, fighting them, and preventing the disease causatives from getting into the Kingdom. Thus, the MOH set 37 inclusive health programs to achieve its preventive objectives. The mist prominent of which are the National Immunities Program, Epidemiological Monitoring Program, Hajj Preventive Medicine Program, and Common Disease Control Program.
Further, in 1431h, the number of the diseases targeted by the extensive immunity vaccines in the Kingdom got up to 24 ones, compared to five diseases in 1399h. Even more, the immunity rate reached up to 98% in terms of the basic vaccines. As a result, the disease rates targeted by this Program have greatly declined.
Still, the Kingdom entered the phase of eradicating the measles, German measles, and mumps, to the effect that the MOH decided to launch the national campaign for the comprehensive vaccination against the measles, German measles, and mumps targeting the nine months-24 years age group at the beginning of each academic year. This procedure is to persist in the next years, Allah willing. It hopes that by the advent of 2015, these diseases will be stamped out from the Kingdom.
Information Technology and Communications:
Presently and as part of the e-health strategic plan, the MOH is building and developing fully fledged, consistent package of the technical and administrative programs in the field of the health information technology and systems and e-health. As such, the MOH possesses 104 projects a part of its e-health strategic plan and the E-Health Dealings Saudi Program (Link). 36 projects and programs out of which have been achieved. And 28 more ones are being implemented. In addition to this, there are ten projects in the phase of the technical analysis and awarding, and ten more ones whose tender document is prepared.
These programs aim to improve the health services performance and provide high-quality comprehensive and integrated e-health systems and environment. Meanwhile, the MOH is working on implementing a plan meant for preparing the information technology and e-health infrastructure with all its facilities included, and another one for the medical referral system. It is also crafting a plan for upgrading and mechanizing the administrative and financial system in the MOH. One more plan is intended to develop the MOH's medical supply and medical equipment and the directorates related to it, as well as extensively expanding the scholarship and training programs for the technical and administrative cadres.
Still, the MOH has completed linking 150 MOH-related hospitals to viral system with the aim of recording and following the serious medical incidents taking place in the hospitals within 48 hours at most. The private sector hospitals will be linked during the next period. Further, the MOH finished designing a unified system for the multi-media communications allowing the user to receive the coming audible and visual messages and fax at their email and cell phone, as well as linking 150 of the MOH's employees in the first phase. Also, the MOH has finalized initiating a system for automatically measuring and recording the extent of the patient's satisfaction in terms of the services delivered for them in the hospitals. It is to be applied by the patients' relations Department in the next months.
Projects Implemented:
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- Epidemiological Monitoring system: it took effect during the 1430 hajj season, and it aims at developing and installing the field survey system by the cell phones and the E-Field Epidemiological Program.
- Pre-Marriage Examination System: it aims to providing the e-pre-marriage examination services. This service is delivered via the MOH portal, as well as having the appointment virtually scheduled and using the e-fingerprint to document the applicant's information, the latest technology offered in this field. Also, the other governmental bodies concerned are to be linked to the portal in the second phase. This system aims at automating the examination procedures of those soon to get married; in order to pinpoint if either partner carries a characteristic of some genetic blood diseases. This helps give the medical consultation on the odds of the transmission of these diseases to either partner after marriage or the children in the future, and provide the options and alternatives before the engaged to plan for a healthy sound family.
- Neonatal protection System (first phase): it is intended for applying the neonatal protection system in 16 maternity and children's hospitals. Currently, the system undergoes the final tests.
- Ijad System for the Missing Hajj performers' Services (Finding): this System aims to help the hajj performers, officials in the Altawafah (circumbulation) foundations, and hajj campaigns report the missing while performing the hajj rituals and look for them in all the hospitals exiting in the areas where the rituals are performed. Still, the System is to contact those who have submitted missing-related reports via the cell phone or email in the event that it has information compatible with the descriptions of those who have been reported missing.
- E-Medical Bed Management Project: it is meant for facilitating accessing the information about the beds and patients, managing the bed requests and specialties in an efficient, effective way, as well as the one day and ordinary surgery; with aim of making work easier and reducing efforts. Also, this Project allows obtaining the most accurate reports and statistics on the medical beds.
- E-Medical Reports System: it aims at developing the system of virtually sending the guest workers' medical reports to the Passport General Department. This System enables the health facilities to enter the medical reports virtually and send them to the bodies concerned with the results of the reports.
- Poison Monitoring Project (Awtar)/ fisrt phase: it is intended for linking all the poison monitoring centers in the Kingdom to central virtual system. This System provides a number of the specialize e-services in the poison monitoring field for the MOH's employees and those dealing with it.
- Health Information System: this System aims at providing 59 MOH-related hospitals with new standards based upon health information system holding all the basic functions. This includes registration, scheduling, patient's medical history summary, laboratory and testing results, X-ray and pharmacy unit results, as well as the ambulance care clinics results. So far, the System has been applied to 59 hospitals.
- Hospitals' Serious Incidents Registration System: it is meant for developing the Serious Incidents System. It is tasked with registering the serious errors or incidents taking place in the hospitals, such as infant abduction and wrong blood transfusion, and notifying the MOH's officials with them via mobile-based messages. Even more, an e-system was built with the aim of registering and following up in the serious medical errors occurring in the hospitals within 48 hours at most, and imparting those concerned directly once these incidents take place; to take the necessary measures.
- Hajj and Umrah Drivers' Testing Program (Yaqiz): a specialized database was built at the MOH portal including the results of the hajj bus drivers' testing. It was called (Yaqiz). It aims to provide a database holding the names of the bus drivers whose positive testing results showed that they are doing one or some types of drugs, and posting them at the MOH portal. This is so important as to speed conveying the information to the bodies concerned to take the appropriate procedures. By the same token, the database is seen as a source for the poison centers work in both Makkah and Madinah, whose aim is to ensure that those busing the hajj performers do not do any drugs or take stimulants.