Even in the remote and rural hospitals of the Middle East, ICU patients can benefit from 24/7 monitoring with advanced software that gathers patient data from multiple sources, continually watching for signs the patient is in trouble.

If any deterioration is detected, an alert is sent to a specialized tele-ICU team, which contacts the hospital’s bedside team and supports them in immediately delivering the right care.

The power of remote monitoring also can be seen in the case of cardiac patients being transported by ambulance to the hospital. An ECG exam can be done while on the road and immediately transmitted to the receiving facility and doctor, for quick evaluation of the patient’s condition, supporting decision-making on the appropriate treatment.

GE’s ECG management solution, MUSE NX, helps clinicians transmit, receive, analyze and compare reports, allowing the healthcare provider to know whether to prepare a cath lab to conduct an exam or an emergency room to perform open heart surgery.

These are two examples of GE Healthcare’s MURAL Virtual Care solutions portfolio that customers are using every day across the region, says Moussa Gholmieh, General Manager of Life Care Solutions for Emerging Markets with GE Healthcare.

“There are multiple care models that this monitoring and data analysis solution offers, including tele-ICU, labor and delivery, and neurology. It works by assessing a range of data points for each patient, based on each hospital’s customized set of clinical bundles and early warning scores relevant to each care area,” he said.

“Most critically, the solution alerts clinicians when a patient’s condition worsens and gives users single-click access to a single screen that provides detailed information from multiple sources about that patient.”

The tele-ICU solution has been deployed in Saudi Arabia, while the MUSE NX remote consult solution is in use in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey.

“The result is more standardized care, lower costs, improved efficiencies, and better clinical outcomes,” Gholmieh said.

GE Healthcare’s digital solutions incorporate the highest levels of cyber security and privacy, ensuring that while doctors can access patient data when needed, multiple security layers keep the information safe from unauthorized users.

Another area where digitization is creating opportunities to improve patient care, is in the management of large-scale healthcare resources, Gholmieh said. For example, GE Healthcare is helping health ministries and healthcare groups address challenges around costs and staffing, while continuing to enhance care and hospital workflows with its Command Center software suite.

A hospital group in Saudi Arabia is using Command Center to help ensure ambulances are directed to healthcare facilities where beds and doctors are available to immediately care for the incoming patient and their condition.

In use around the world, the Command Center is helping hospitals achieve results such as 30% faster allocation of emergency department patients to a bed, 70% reductions in operating room holds, and 10% reductions in bed request turnaround times, resulting in quicker patient care. This elevated efficiency in organizing patient flow and diagnosis to treatment timelines, has been shown to mimic the added value of hospital bed expansions.

“The ongoing and unpredictable nature of the pandemic has not only increased the need for remote and digital solutions; it has also proven that this way of treatment is here to stay and could have great benefits if further leveraged,” Gholmieh said.

For Gholmieh, the importance of this equipment – which addresses the needs of most care areas in the hospital and all patients, from adults to pediatrics to the smallest neonatal patients, cannot be overstated.

“This is especially true in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, which placed our acute-care range at the forefront. It not only met the needs of patient monitoring, ventilation and cardiac assessment, but also showcased the importance of quality parameters, remote solutions, algorithms and software.”

Read more stories about GE Healthcare’s work to enhance healthcare across the Middle East, North East Africa and Turkey.

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