Dubai: The Rashid Hospital’s trauma care centre has gone high tech by linking the Electronic Medical Record Project called Salam with the ambulances and by including 159 more beds for critical patients to expand emergency care, said a senior Dubai Health Authority (DHA) official.
Dr Victor Butros, DHA consultant and head of Rashid Hospital Emergency Care, said this move would help improve the life-saving capacity of the hospital as it receives 500-600 cases daily. Some of these are life-threatening such as strokes, road accidents, cardiovascular episodes, among others.
The ambulances belonging to Dubai Corporation for Ambulance Services (DCAS) provide complete details of a patient reporting to the trauma section at the click of a button, said Dr Butros.
He added this information will be displayed on a screen allowing doctors and nurses to prepare accordingly to meet the patient’s treatment needs prior to his/her arrival. This will allow for optimal treatment of patients who arrive to the hospital in a critical condition.
Prior to this, the DHA had added 159 beds and two floors to the trauma care in 2016. Sixty-six beds have been added to the second floor, which will be designated for intensive care speciality, including internal medicine, neurosurgery and general surgery. This is an increase by 50 per cent in intensive care beds.
The third floor, on the other hand, will have 93 beds that will be utilised for general surgery, specialised surgeries and fractures, to name a few.
New specialisations
New medical specialisations have also been added as part of the expansion and these include hand, liver and spine surgery, bone fractures and bariatric surgery. These specialisations are part of the third-floor expansions related to general surgery.
High-quality technology has been added to the smart beds to track the status of the patient in bed to avoid cases of falling from the bed — which is one of the indicators of excellence and patients’ safety in the hospital.
This technology also ensures maintaining the status of the head (30 degrees) for stroke patients. It also ensures an in-line stabilisation for patients with spinal injuries. This position ensures safe and healthy position for various patients according to his/her condition.
The expansion and new services will support the DHA’s efforts to compete in medical tourism.
Burns and plastic surgery unit
The DHA also inaugurated a new burns and plastic surgery unit (Ward 23) at Rashid Hospital in 2016. The new unit, which is considered a one-of-a-kind specialised burns and plastic surgery facility in the region, will cater to burn victims including those who are in a critical state with its 10 rooms that are equipped with a surgery room, five individual rooms and three intensive care rooms. The ward also includes a hydrology room.
Moreover, the wards’ state-of-the-art surgery room has a laminar flow clean room, which means that the air is continuously sterilised.
