Watch: Dubai Hospital undergoes rapid and radical transformation

Dubai: Can you imagine a high-tech AI-powered health care facility where the mother and her newborn are tagged with a synchronized magnetic band, so that when the newborn is separated from its mother, the tag sends out an alert and all doors leading out of that section automatically close to prevent any attempt at child abduction.

Or a fully automated diagnostic division where a patient’s pathology sample which took more than two days for analysis, getting results within a matter of hours?

Integrated healthcare system

This is the kind of integrated multi-layered transformation that the Dubai Hospital has undergone in over three years. The expansion is not just physical in terms of augmenting hospital capacity but an exhaustive change in services, systems and outlook to improve the outcomes of health care delivery and be more patient-centric. What’s more all of these services will now be available to resident expatriates as well, under the unified health insurance services announced in January 2022.

The systems are such that from the time the patient enters the hospital, and goes for his appointment, everything will be done to make the journey more personalized and less time consuming. In case of emergency, when a patient enters the hospital, post registration, he or she will be taken to the float room, triaged and according to the threat to life, sent for appropriate medical intervention to the right place without waste of time.

Multi-speciality tertiary care

Dubai Hospital, one of Dubai Health Authority’s (DHA) largest multi-specialty tertiary care government hospital catering to patients from Dubai and Northern Emirates, announced the completion of the renovation and expansion of its infrastructure.

Announcing the expansion with a guided tour of the facility, Dr Mariam Al Raeesi, CEO of Dubai Hospital told Gulf News, “Our renovation has been guided by our need to improve the efficiency of our patient journey. We have adopted a patient centric approach and all our KPI’s and dashboards, which track in real time, the time taken to attend to each patient, inspire us to improve our performance. For instance, we track the time taken for a patient to secure an appointment, the actual consultation time, the waiting time etc. We looked at upending the health care delivery and completely streamlining the patient’s journey in the hospital, weeding out all the unnecessary waiting time. And with the new, improved infrastructure and services, we have been able to achieve many goals that will enhance our customer satisfaction at the hospital.”

Renovation

The renovation, which began in 2018, continued non-stop throughout the pandemic period. In over three years, the hospital has not only upgraded the infrastructure such as better VIP rooms and a multi-storey carpark to accommodate 900 cars but also a full –fledged upgradation of services offered.

These include additional beds in the emergency for major and minor emergencies, fast-track clinics for breast and cardiac care, additional to resuscitation units in case of cardiac episodes, a dedicated resuscitation section for Code Blue patients ( highly critical) among other things.

Other highlights of the expansion included the addition of over 100 negative pressure rooms to handle breakout of infectious diseases, the augmentation of the emergency room with dedicated sections for minor and major emergencies, a separate section to handle gyanecological emergencies and the augmentation of the surgical ICU which has gone up from nine to 13. The hospital, which was handling several ophthalmology cases, now has a dedicated new Lasik clinic to attend to wide range of eye related disorders ranging from simple refractive surgeries to corneal transplants. It has also collaborated with other DHA entities on an organ transplant programme, and introduced teleconsultation services for senior citizens and special needs community among other things.

Patient-centric approach

Commenting on the hospitals augmented new services which have elicited a very positive response from patients, Dr Jamal Al Saleh, the Chief Medical Officer of the facility said, “We offer services for both outpatient and inpatient in 26 medical and surgical specialties with a total bed capacity of 627 (432 inpatient beds and 195 daycare beds).

The hospital sees about 800 outpatients per day in the Outpatient department and admits about 300 patients per day for in-patient procedures.

Dr Saleh further added, “In 2021, our total number of admissions were 19,813, total number of surgeries were 7,945, OPD visitors were 167,477, and emergency visitors were 65,551. Our waiting time for patients for consultation from doctors is 18 minutes, which is less than the stipulated 21 minutes as per our KPIs and the time taken for a new consultation appointment is about 12 days. The hospital is working hard to weed out unnecessary delays, integrate two appointments of the same patient and improve patient outcomes.”

One of the best examples of the integrated approach is that of a rheumatic or diabetic patient seeking other consultations. Dr Al Raeesi explained, “For instance, if a patient suffering from Type II diabetes requires to me the nephrologist or heart doctor, he will get an integrated appointment where he does not have to be in three different waiting lists. Similarly if a female patient who is rheumatic happens to be pregnant, her appointments will be made with both departments in the same day and the two doctors will also use the information to help treat the patient better.”

The finest examples of time management is the new fast track clinics is the breast clinic. This deals with a patient from the time she discovers a breast lump, which requires immediate attention. Same appointment for consultation will be provided. The patient will also get priority on mammography and ultrasound, all of which is available at one place in the hospital. If the situation augments, the patient can seek services for biopsy and intervention radiologist within the week. “We have complete integrated breast services so to prevent loss of precious time for the patient. The same goes for our fast track cardiac care clinic.”

Renovations at a glance

• Total renovation of main entrance

• Expansion and renovation of surgical ICU

• Lasik Clinic

• VIP wards renovation: 11 dedicated male and female rooms each and total of 22-bed capacity

• Teleconsultations

• Diabetes-Antenatal Clinic

• Diabetes and Chronic Kidney Disease Clinic

• Rheumatology-Obstetric Clinic

• Combined Cardiology-Obstetric Clinic

• Rheumatology Nephrology combined clinic

• Fast track clinics for breast and cardiac care with rapid access of services to prevent loss of time and diagnosis.