DHA hospitals to deploy touch-screen bedside units

• Move part of overall smart hospital initiative
• From lights control and meal ordering, to entertainment and hospital information, the screens will provide a gamut of features.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, October 13, 2014: In a move to enhance hospital experience of patients, the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) will implement touch-screen bedside units across all DHA hospitals.

HE Eng. Essa Al Maidoor, Director-General of the DHA announced the Authority’s new initiative at DHA’s stand at GITEX 2014, and said: “Hospital stays can sometimes be unpleasant for patients of all ages. Through the use of technology we wanted to create a recreational as well as educational environment for patients and therefore we adopted the use of touch-screen bedside units that are easy to use for patients and have a gamut of features from video and TV use, to meal ordering and hospital information services.”

Al Maidoor said setting up a touch-screen Bed and Patient Entertainment system (Terminal with Arm and touch screen) has several features and once implemented patients will be able to watch TV, videos, have access to internet. They will be able to video chat, play games, and opt for videos and movies on demand. The touch screen will also be able to control the room lights, patients can order a meal, request for laundry service, view hospital information, patient educational content etc.

Eng. Ali Mohammed Al Mazyood, Director of Engineering at the DHA, said: “Through technology we can ensure that patients feel connected to the outside world. The system is similar to inflight entertainment systems but also has a strong educational component. At a later stage, the Electronic Medical Records will be linked to the system once it is implemented allowing patients to view their medical records on the touch-screen.”

In the first phase, the screens will be implemented for all 200-beds of the Al Jalila Children’s Specialty Hospital.

Dr. Moza Ajaif Al Zaabi, CEO of Al Jalila Children’s Speciality Hospital, said: “The hospital will be a smart hospital and we aim to use technology in the best manner possible to enhance patient experience for all our patients. Being a paediatric hospital, we will ensure all the smart interactive screens in patient's rooms are children friendly, have several games, cartoons as well as edutainment oriented programs for children.  Creating a positive environment for our patients goes hand-in-hand with our aim to provide excellent healthcare services.”

Al Zaabi said, in addition to this, all critical care areas in the hospital will be equipped with patient monitors that will be operated and supported by Clinical Decision Support Systems to ensure early warnings, surveillances, patient’s status and trends. This ensures practice in the field of critical care is highly safe and all decisions are based on evidence-based practice and real time”