Dubai: Although Dubai hospitals are making progress in recording medical documents electronically, experts say more needs to be done to help Dubai achieve its goal of becoming a smart city.

The results of the Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM) — an international model that measures the level of electronic medical records adoption — were revealed on Wednesday at a Dubai Health Authority (DHA) event.

The model, which evaluated 28 hospitals in Dubai, scored them a 2.5 out of seven.

The hospitals were ranked from zero to seven — zero for being completely dependent on paper and seven for becoming completely paperless.

John Hoyt, executive vice-president of HIMSS Analytics, the company that devised the model, said: “It has been steady growth, but there is plenty more to do. There are only 190 countries in the world ranked a seven and none of them are from the Middle East. Only 12 hospitals from the region ranked a six. They include eight in Abu Dhabi, one in Sharjah and three in Saudi Arabua.”

Hoyt estimated that a decade is needed for UAE hospitals to rank a seven unless stricter measures are taken to push them into moving towards electronic documentation.

He emphasised that hospitals that achieved a score of seven showed improvement in quality and safety, reduction in errors, efficiency as well as improvement in practices.

Eng Eisa Al Maidour, director-general of DHA, stressed the importance of introducing IT solutions in the health sector.

“I think that investing in such solutions is the best investment at the best time,” he said in his opening speech that electronic medical record adoption is one of DHA’s most important initiatives.

Dr Mohammad Al Redha, Director of Health Data and Information Analysis Department at the DHA, said hospitals need time to implement IT solutions as that can cost them 2-10 per cent of their budgets.

“Three hospitals have been awarded for the progress they made in electronic documentation. They include: The Canadian Specialist Hospital for having the highest score, the Iranian Hospital was awarded for being the biggest score jumper and Medi Clinic Hospital for being the fastest responder,” he said.