http://www.himss.org/News/NewsDetail.aspx?ItemNumber=25723
Istanbul, TURKEY (November 15, 2013) - Turkish Ministry of Health and HIMSS Europe organization offering global-scale accreditation for IT use in hospitals have undertaken a 5-year-term collaboration. The parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Nov. 15, 2013. HIMSS will measure the compatibility of intelligence technologies at Turkish hospitals with international standards using Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM), the globally recognized accreditation and standard system. The system aims at transfer of medical health records into electronic form. With the agreement, it is planned to expand the scope of the system to encompass public hospitals all over Turkey. Mobilization of patient records is supposed to allow immediate access of information anywhere, facilitated matching of the correct patient with the correct medicine, increase in the time allocated for each patient and in healthcare services while decreasing the number of medical errors.
To establish the concept of “digital” and “paperless” hospitals in line with its 2013-2017 Strategic Plan, the Ministry of Health signed a Memorandum of Understanding with HIMSS Europe. Prof. Dr. Ali İhsan Dokucu, Turkey Public Hospitals Agency Chairman, Dr. Hakkı Öztürk, Head of Healthcare Information Systems Department at MoH and H. Stephen Lieber, HIMSS CEO, participated as keynote speakers in the press meeting hosted to announce the memorandum. The healthcare information technologies, data collection, analysis, and consultancy solutions which HIMSS Analytics Europe will provide for the MoH were introduced in detail at the press conference.
Originally founded in 1961, HIMSS analyzes and offers accreditation for hospitals using a scoring system on their progress in completing the 7 stages to creating a digital hospital environment. In Europe, as of May 2013, there are 26 hospitals with ‘HIMSS Stage 6’ accreditation and only 2 with ‘HIMSS Stage 7’ accreditation in accordance with EMRAM Model which is implemented to improve clinical processes and ensure compatibility with international standards. In Turkey, Ankara Gazi Mustafa Kemal Public Hospital piloted the use of the system and has ‘HIMSS Analytics EMRAM Stage 6’ accreditation.
HIMSS has global recognition and reputation in healthcare information and management technologies and HIMSS accreditation is an indication of global acknowledgement for hospitals and an opportunity to keep up with the pace of ever-changing information and communication technologies.
“We have decided to use HIMSS EMRAM scoring system to ensure all public hospitals to keep up with the latest medical innovations and international quality standards as well as enabling integrated paperless hospitals with the concept of digitalization as required also by our strategic objectives. With the protocol we have signed today, our hospitals will have a roadmap for their future development in a defined framework of time with the support of HIMSS and be compatible with the global standards in healthcare information technologies” saidProf. Dr. Ali İhsan Dokucu, Turkey Public Hospitals Agency Chairman.
“We encourage comprehensive use of information technologies in all our healthcare facilities to facilitate access and to optimize quality in healthcare services in scope of our healthcare e-transformation program. We have started this project with HIMSS Analytics to support and have a standard for this transformation through classification and certification activities. Our goal is to assess and complete certification of all our hospitals using ‘digital hospital classification system’ by the end of 2015, which is well ahead of the timing defined in Turkish Ministry of Health Strategic Plan” said Dr. Hakkı Öztürk, Head of Healthcare Information Systems Department at MoH.
“I am delighted to be signing this collaboration agreement with the Turkish Ministry of Health and thereby supporting a whole country in its mission to deliver better healthcare through IT. By conducting data collection from all public Turkish hospitals and using the HIMSS EMRAM model as a guideline to implement IT in hospitals, then the Turkish Ministry of Health are on a fast track to success and HIMSS is thrilled to be supporting the Ministry in its mission. We look forward to sharing the results of the data collection and best practices from around the world, at the upcoming HIMSS Turkey conference in May 2014, in Istanbul,” said H. Stephen Lieber, President/CEO, HIMSS Worldwide.