Regular health check-ups as a child can have a positive impact as they grow into adults, as potential conditions can be spotted in their early years. Collecting the data for the whole of Abu Dhabi could prove a challenge, which is why we at SEHA worked with Cerner to implement a coordinated solution.
The Department of Health requires regular collections of dental, weight, and vital signs information, as well as documentation of all childhood immunization records. With many clinicians not having access to SEHA’s existing EHR, and a lot of schools keeping paper records, statistics proved difficult to gather.
Any referrals to physicians also needed to be completed manually, with school nurses regularly unaware of the outcomes. In short, this disconnected health care was making efficient record taking difficult for SEHA to achieve.
Fortunately, our work with Cerner meant that we were able to work together to implement the Cerner Millennium® EHR into all the schools in the emirate. Straight away, it revolutionized how information could be collected, taking out the time-consuming human tracking and cutting the potential for human error.
We were also able to put Millennium into our mobile clinics to support schools in remote areas, and we ensured that all school nurses received 16 hours of training with the new system so they could utilize all of the benefits.
The transformation has been stark, and by students now having a single integrated file across the whole care continuum, they are in line with our ‘one person, one record’ mandate. This means that immunization reporting is much simpler, it’s easier to spot pupils that could be at risk of developing serious conditions, and schools can now identify and track infections to prevent their spread.
We’re extremely thankful that our relationship with Cerner has made this collaboration possible, and are looking forward to happier, healthier childhoods for students all over the emirate.
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Bakr Saadoon Ismail
General Physician AHS | Health Informatics Director
