Amiri Hospital achieves Level 6 in HIMSS EMRAM digital maturity accreditation by the American Health Information Management Association

Abdulkerim Al-Abdullah

Al-Amiri Hospital has achieved Level 6 of the Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM) certification, administered by the American College of Healthcare Information Systems (HIMSS). This accomplishment reflects an eight-year institutional digital transformation journey that began with the project’s launch in 2018.

The transformation journey progressed through stages that included developing infrastructure and data centers, integrating the health information system with specialized systems, and expanding digital services and telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, the hospital achieved Level 5, and the assessment at that time showed that approximately 77% of the requirements for Level 6 had been met. Subsequent development extended to the clinical environment, enhancing integration with critical care, pharmacy, laboratory, and medical imaging systems, as well as developing clinical decision support tools, redesigning procedures, and strengthening governance, training, and clinical adoption of the systems.

On this occasion, Dr. Areej Al-Kandari, Director of Al-Amiri Hospital, stated that achieving Level 6 represents an advanced milestone in the hospital’s institutional work, which involved participation from medical, nursing, technical, and administrative teams. She emphasized the continued effort toward achieving Level 7 and expanding the impact of the acquired expertise to support digital health transformation projects in Kuwait.

For his part, Dr. Abdulrahman Abdullah Al-Faris, Head of the Hospital’s Digital Transformation Committee, clarified that the committee held 42 documented meetings since June 2022 to follow up on decisions and initiatives, and handled 1,189 development and improvement requests, of which 854 were completed. These efforts followed a workflow cycle encompassing requirements analysis, clinical verification, testing, accreditation, implementation, and change impact measurement.

The hospital’s digital environment includes 12 major clinical systems and 13 infrastructure and technology platforms. Its systems have processed over one million digital transactions, while its database contains more than 450,000 patient records. Additionally, over a thousand quality and performance indicators have been developed and monitored, alongside the “Al-Amiri Digital Gateway,” which provides a range of digital health services and has been used by over 251,000 patients.

The project involved extensive human and technical participation, with more than 100 individuals from various specialties collaborating with over 15 solution and service providers. The digital environment serves approximately 4,000 staff users and more than 50,000 visitors who utilize the digital systems and services.

The HIMSS EMRAM model is an international framework for measuring digital maturity in healthcare institutions, progressing through seven levels. Achieving Level 6 represents an advanced stage in the hospital’s path toward Level 7, reinforcing its ambition to exchange expertise, support research and medical collaboration, and contribute to building digital capacities that serve Kuwait’s healthcare system.

This achievement is the result of joint efforts between the hospital administration, the Digital Transformation Committee, medical, nursing, technical, and administrative teams, in partnership with Verts Informatics and various technical solution and service providers, with support from the Ministry of Health.