The head of MOH Information Technology and Statistics Committee, Dr. Mohamed bin Rashid Al-Yamani, said the Ministry has developed a hospital management software to avoid use of paperwork. That software offers a number of functions like registration, admittance and transfer of patients, archiving of deaths among others. He said the department launched the 'digital pen' software to help professionals at heath centers enter data, give more details about assessors and diagnoses for more accurate statistical data, forward medical procedure forms of the health centers staff from ordinary papers to digital form by digital pens that can save and move data to the database of the statistical software automatically.
Dr. Al-Yamani said in a press statement that information technology plays key role in making the pilgrimage season a success from different sides, including the transfer and analysis of data in no time for preparing accurate stats that help take the right decision at the right time.
He said the MOH Information Technology and Statistics Committee always aspires to be successful by offering the latest technology and improving the output of used systems, thereby raising the caliber of the service to pilgrims.
He explained that the information technology staff has been chosen from the Ministry of health and the company running the hajj project, totaling 185 staff, to work as statistics technicians and date entry specialists at the hospitals of Makkah and the Holy Places.
He added that a specialist course on the development and usage of Business Intelligence has been conducted to develop and manage the system that displays the data entered by the statistics software as indices and graphics to help take the right decisions. Training courses have been held too and attended by 100 participants on the statistical procedures of the statistical work during the season of pilgrimage. Future courses will be held for the rest of participants and during the season for the participants themselves on the job (as of the 1st of Dhul-Hijja).
Dr. Alyamani said the speed of connection networks has been increased by using the fiber technology at the hospitals of Mecca and the holy places taking part in hajj, to guarantee speedy data transfer, development of the infrastructure of the holy places hospitals, by a three-year project including the supply, installation, operation, maintenance and upgrading the internal networks of the emergency hospital at Mena and the wireless network, and developing the information technology infrastructure at the hospitals of the holy places to avoid any previous problems in the communication process, especially regarding hajj systems such as the statistical system.
This adds to several programmes and projects incluing the statistics programme. The system was modified to avoid some previous problems and special displays were installed to show hajj stats. The forms were developed by revising and modifying the forms of information entry regarding deaths, the list of the most widespread diseases during the hajj season, a list of the deadliest diseases and the vehicle positioning system. That system was installed on the remaining ambulances bringing their number to 160 vehicles, and some improvements were added to the server of the system to enhance its performance.