SYSTEM IS THE WAY FORWARD

COVID-19: AN INTEGRATED HEALTHCARE SYSTEM IS THE WAY FORWARD

At King's College Hospital London, Dubai, multi-disciplinary teams have challenged the so-called old-fashioned siloed practice, and work as a single ecosystem to prioritize the health and well-being of its patients. Christian Schuhmacher, CEO, King's College Hospital London, Dubai highlights how a truly integrated approach is driving the country’s effective response to the pandemic

With dozens of healthcare faers in the wide healthcare field is key cilities across the UAE, the to effectively and efficiently tackle any country’s healthcare syschallenge, and especially one on the tem is evolving faster than scale of the current pandemic. In Dubai elsewhere in the world. A few weeks not only is the coordination of beds, back, the World Health Organisation both critical as well as normal beds (WHO) commended the UAE for leading centralized, but all relevant governthe front in COVID-19 by conducting ment agencies, from Dubai Ambulance, the highest level of testing per milto Dubai Police, Dubai Municipality and lion in the world, which is an effective many many others closely coordinate strategy of keeping track of the virus, their efforts in tackling COVID 19 in Dubai. which is pertinent to knowing the necessary measures to take in combating And it went beyond just coordinating the epidemic. All these efforts have the immediate response. Also, rebeen made possible by the integrated search facilities like Mohammed Bin healthcare system put in place to unite Rashid University (MBRU) is part of this all the key health delivery systems. unified approach and came up with groundbreaking analysis of the strain The UAE is a set example of how unified of virus here in the UAE. The key role Simon Fisher Executive Vice President - Gulf, ACE Group policies and infrastructures across the public and private healthcare sectors can work towards the delivery of a full in coordinating all these efforts in the healthcare sector is played by the COVID Central Command Center, where range of services and as a result imall initiatives, challenges and learnprove health outcomes. The collaboraings are translated into practice and tion and coordination between all playunified policies. All the relevant regu-

lators like Dubai Health Authority, Dubai Healthcare City Authority and their key senior members as well as the aforementioned other key governmental and private stakeholders play a vital part in this collaborative effort of ensuring sufficient capacity and unified testing and treatment protocols.

The WHO describes an Integrated Healthcare System as “the organization and management of health services so that people get the care they need, when they need it, in ways that are user-friendly, achieve the desired results and provide value for money”. This is what the healthcare system in the Emirates envisioned, and the reason why it is ranked among the leading healthcare delivery systems in the world. In the wider sense of the definition this includes all parties involved in delivering care and protection to the population of Dubai.

Under the visionary and efficient leadership of Dubai, the old and traditional model of “siloed” healthcare delivery and the gap between public and private providers was overcome in a matter of days.

Coordinated Efforts in the Face of COVID-19

As the pandemic jumped inside the UAE borders and continued to spread within, a need for integrating healthcare services across the board for both public and private players arose. With this fast-evolving health situation, a methodical approach was achieved by having a strong link between a cross section of healthcare facilities and medical staff, and synchronized systems of care among others. Within days all medical professionals were allowed to practice in any healthcare facility, no matter what their original licensing body is (DHA, MOH, DHCC)

The goal of this methodology is to ease navigation through the healthcare infrastructure, not only for the patients, but for the medical and non-medical staff, and other professionals in the healthcare sector. expected challenge by successfully integrating healthcare services by adapting to the fast-changing global landscape. Even before COVID many initiatives were in place to build a sustainable integrated healthcare system in the UAE. For instance, a while back before Coronavirus came knocking, the Abu Dhabi Department of health (DoH) and the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) established a partnership to develop an international healthcare model that would promote quality of life and enhance health for everyone. This enabled the streamlining of healthcare delivery processes and enhancement of resources for a unified patient care within healthcare facilities. And as a result, adaptable service provision settings were created at different levels. An example of these adaptable provision points was the Salama initiative, created by the DHA and launched back in 2017, which is a project who’s main goal is to ‘provide patients and doctors access to medical records through a patient portal and ensure that the electronic patient medical record is available across all the DHA health facilities’. Today, and in the current COVID-19 climate, it couldn’t play a bigger role. Christian Schuhmacher CEO, King's College Hospital

A Pandemic as an Accelerator

London A second example of integrated healthcare is another gem, also by the DHA, known as NABIDH (Network Analysis Backbone Integrated Dubai Health) which enables the creation of a unified medical record for each indiPhil Perry vidual in Dubai by connecting the information contained in all public and Head of UK and Ireland, Zoom private healthcare facilities, leading to improved patient safety, reduced cost and evidence-based care.

Harmonization Between Health Professionals

With integration of a healthcare system also comes the challenge of overcoming the old-schooled healthcare siloes where there exists a boundary between healthcare specialties, and doctors and nurses just to name a few.

To realize the goals of healthcare integration, health facilities need to adopt a high degree of harmonization of services at different levels and sectors. This includes patient care, policy making, and organization management to unite the diverse roles of services at different levels of a health facility. As a result of this multi-level unique communication and sharing of data related to patient care and treatment plans, the needs of the patient can be effectively and efficiently met.