The amazing EHR journey so far!

It was in January 2020 that IMC took an important decision to replace and rejuvenate the electronic medical records system to a global standard EHR with the vision to become one of the leading healthcare facilities in the region.

Our objective was to implement a world-class EHR to automate all operational, clinical, administrative workflows and fulfill all reporting and analytical requirements of IMC. 

The initiative received the complete support of the IMC board members and our beloved Chairman and CEO Dr. Walid Fitaihi. Shortly after, the project teams started swift work for the RFP process and opened out invitations for the best KLAS tier EHR vendors across the world under sustainability, scalability, and standardization criteria. 

After a strict evaluation process by a selection committee, we invited InterSystems to demonstrate their solution. All this was happening amidst the COVID-19 pandemic that paralyzed travel and had a catastrophic effect on hospitals worldwide. But, our sense of purpose was never compromised throughout the stint, thanks to a determined leadership that focussed only on moving forward for a better tomorrow.

At this time, both IMC and InterSystems had to adapt to the new way of working with the entire demonstrations and site assessment conducted virtually covering all organization functions.

Once we finalized the solution with the board's approvals and our Chairman and CEO, a committee headed by the then CFO and CIO was formed to conduct negotiations with the InterSystems.

It took a good four months for the whole project team, contract committee, and legal departments on both sides to finalize all the paperwork and legal terms of the contract—countless hours of calls, meetings cutting across different time zones so on and so forth.

 Post negotiations and contracting the length and breadth of all functions within IMC, we finally came to terms in November 2020, marking a new beginning into IMCs digital transformation journey for the next 10 years. 

It was a historic feat where IMC and InterSystems entered into a strategic partnership, making IMC the 1st hospital in the kingdom to have a cloud-hosted EHR. It was also a feather in the cap for InterSystems, which had signed its first private client in KSA.

When everything was looking good to commence the project within the next 3 months from the time of contract sign-off, the 2nd wave of the Pandemic pushed us down with an additional delay of 6 months.

The project teams during this waiting period were not giving up. They had the will and vigor with extensive project planning with the help of ARIES - Architecture for Rapid Implementation of Enterprise Systems methodology.

 On the other hand, InterSystems was a lifeline, supporting the whole aspect for preplanning and accounting for the possibilities for further lockdown, which could restrict the project from being kicked off 100% remotely. 

The day finally arrived - the 12th of June, 2021. It was the day when the IMCs EHR journey started with a grand event held at Ritz Carlton Jeddah. The whole theme of the event was standardization with the tag line "A Digital Leap Towards Standardization for Patient Care."

Covid was trying to play spoilsport again, which pushed us by a month, and we had to start the project activities from August with the critical "Patient Journey" sessions carried out virtually. 

Whenever we had issues, technology came in as a solution, and this time the virtual meetings helped the situation. This also involved scoping and developing technical specifications for 30+ interfaces and 44 lab analyzers to be integrated covering three sites.

Today, we are in a great position to Go-Live as planned within 12 months from the commencement.

As I write this post, both IMC and InterSystems validate the patient journey materializing what we had seen on papers in our cloud environment. 

This brings us joy and more accountability to deliver what we had committed.

 At this juncture, I would like to thank the members of the IMC Board, our beloved Chairman & CEO, our DCEO, CMO, CNO, CXO, and all the chiefs who have been instrumental in this project.

I would also like to congratulate InterSystems for their support and partnership.

As I always say, "One Team, One Goal," and Our Goal is to provide the best technology-driven healthcare solutions.