Basema Saddik

An Emergency System to Improve Ambulance Dispatching, Ambulance Diversion and Clinical Handover Communication--A Proposed Model

Effective communication in healthcare is important and especially critical in emergency situations. In this paper we propose a new comprehensive emergency system which facilitates the communication process in emergency cases from ambulance dispatch to the patient’s arrival and handover in the hospital. The proposed system has been designed to facilitate and computerize all the processes involved in an accident from finding the nearest ambulance through to accessing a patient’s online health record which can assist in pre-hospital treatments. The proposed system also locates the nearest hospital specializing in the patient’s condition and will communicate patient identification to the emergency department. The components of the proposed system and the technologies used in building this system are outlined in this paper as well as the challenges expected and proposed solutions to these challenges.

An Ontological Case Base Engineering Methodology for Diabetes Management

Ontology engineering covers issues related to ontology development and use. In Case Based Reasoning (CBR) system, ontology plays two main roles; the first as case base and the second as domain ontology. However, the ontology engineering literature does not provide adequate guidance on how to build, evaluate, and maintain ontologies. This paper proposes an ontology engineering methodology to generate case bases in the medical domain. It mainly focuses on the research of case representation in the form of ontology to support the case semantic retrieval and enhance all knowledge intensive CBR processes. A case study on diabetes diagnosis case base will be provided to evaluate the proposed methodology.

Graphic warnings and text warning labels on cigarette packages in Riyadh Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Awareness and perceptions

BACKGROUND: Graphic warning labels have been shown to be effective in smoking initiation and cessation and were implemented in Saudi Arabia in 2012. To date, no study has assessed the effectiveness of these labels and the Saudi populations perceptions on the effectiveness of cigarette health warning labels. METHODS: We used a cross-sectional qualitative study comprising of nine focus groups among 3 different community group members including health-care workers, adult women and adult men. We conducted in-depth interviews among community leaders. Both focus groups and interviews assessed awareness levels and elicited perceptions about health warning labels on cigarette boxes currently used in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. RESULTS: While most participants in the study were aware and supported the use of graphic warning labels on cigarette packages, the awareness of the specific details on the labels was low. Participants perceived the effectiveness of current labels somewhat vague in smoking cessation and advocated for stronger and more aggressive graphics. Community leaders, however, preferred text-only labels and did not support aggressive labels which were deemed culturally and religiously inappropriate. CONCLUSIONS: The study suggests that while graphic warning labels are perceived as necessary on cigarette packages the currently used messages are not clear and therefore do not serve their intended purposes. Measures should be undertaken to ensure that pictorial cigarette labels used in Saudi Arabia are culturally and ethnically appropriate and are rotated on a regular basis to ensure salience among smokers and nonsmokers alike.

Role of radio frequency identification in improving infant safety and the extent of nursing staff acceptance of RFID at King Abdulaziz medical city in Riyadh

Objective: The main objectives of this study were to explore the role of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology in improving infant safety in terms of mismatching, swapping and abduction; to determine the extent of nursing staff acceptance of this technology, and to evaluate workflow improvement following Infant Protection System implementation. In order to meet our objectives, an exploratory study was conducted in the General Obstetrics and Gynecology department at King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh. Methodology: To achieve the first objective, a repeated cross sectional design was used with two rounds of data collection. The first round looked at infant registration data before system implementation. The second round investigated infant registration data after system implementation. Then the comparison between rounds was applied to determine the similarity percentage of infant name, MRN and RFID. To achieve the second and third objective, a cross sectional design was used and self-administrated questionnaires were distributed to 237 nursing staff. A convenience sample of 190 nursing staff completed the questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS and Java programing language. Result: The results of this study showed that 65.8% of nursing staff perceived that RFID technology is effective in tracking infant movement and 62.1% of them perceived that RFID is well in identifying the infants correctly. However, only half of the nurses surveyed showed acceptance of the infant protection system and only 39% of nurses perceived workflow improvement. The main reasons for dissatisfaction were found to be inadequate training and computer skills. Conclusion: This study supports the capability of an Infant Protection System that uses RFID technology to decrease infant mismatching, swapping and abduction. However, further computer skills and system training is essential to enhance nursing satisfaction of the system as well as improve workflow within the department.

Factors Influencing Patient Waiting Time as Key Performance Indicator of the Emergency Department Services at National Guard Health Affairs-Dammam Hospital

Results: The study revealed that patients’ mean waiting time in the emergency department was 123.82 minutes after bed check-in. The study findings show that factors including participant’s level of education, working schedule, years of experience as well as Health Information system accessibility had a statistically significant but weak relationship with the average waiting time after bed check-in (p <0.05) with the exception for work field which showed a medium positive relationship(r=0.302). The participants’ working schedule and Health Information system accessibility were the most significant variables that influenced the patients’ average waiting time after bed check-in in the emergency room. Conclusion: This study has identified five factors that may influence patient waiting time after bed check-in in the emergency room at NGHA Dammam Hospital: participant’s work field, level of education, working schedule, years of experience and Health Information system accessibility. Stakeholders need to take action to implement proper solutions which may lead to better delivery of patient care in the emergency room. Further studies should also target eliciting staff and patients’ opinions to ensure high quality of services in the emergency room.