King Abdulaziz Medical City - Riyadh First in EMEA to Earn Stage 7 Revalidation on New EMRAM

King Abdulaziz Medical City - Riyadh, a 1973-bed hospital managed by the Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs in Saudi Arabia, became the first hospital in Europe, the Middle East and Africa to achieve a revalidation at Stage 7 on the HIMSS Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model under its new, modernized standards.

King Abdulaziz Medical City - Riyadh — which was recently recognized as the world’s first system to earn a quadruple Stage 7 rating by HIMSS — has earned three EMRAM revalidations since it first earned Stage 7 on the maturity model in 2017. The hospital has consistently ranked high on levels of EMR adoption.

In 2022, King Abdulaziz Medical City - Riyadh earned its fourth Stage 7 validation with its assessment on the HIMSS Infrastructure Adoption Model. The hospital has also rated Stage 7 validations on Outpatient Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model and the Adoption Model for Analytics Maturity. It has earned Stage 6 validation on the HIMSS Digital Imaging Adoption Model.

“Digital transformation has become increasingly important for healthcare organizations, as it has high potential to improve patient outcomes, enhance the quality of care, increase patient experience and enable delivering personalized care,” said H.E. Dr. Bandar AlKnawy, MNGHA’s Chief Executive Officer. “The digital health solutions that are implemented as part of the digital transformation process enable more efficient and coordinated care delivery.”

On this achievement, Dr. Raed AlHazme, IT Executive Director at MNGHA, highlighted that “digital health maturity models, such as HIMSS EMRAM, are essential tools for healthcare organizations to evaluate their current state of digital transformation and identify areas for improvement.

“By utilizing those models, organizations can assess their capabilities and determine the level of integration and effectiveness of their digital health solutions,” AlHazme said. “The importance of relying on digital health maturity models lies in their ability to guide healthcare organizations toward digital transformation success. These models provide a roadmap for organizations to follow as they move towards becoming more digitally mature. They offer a comprehensive framework that includes multiple dimensions such as strategy, governance, infrastructure, culture, and user engagement”.

The hospital has been assessed several times by HIMSS Digital Health Strategist John Rayner, who once again led the team responsible for the EMRAM Stage 7 revalidation.

“This is a brilliant hospital, committed to continuous improvement and to increasing patient safety and improving the overall standard of clinical care through the better use of information and associated technologies,” Rayner said. “Everywhere you look, you see examples of doctors, nurses, allied health professionals and those in managerial positions who are passionate about providing the very highest standards of patient care and in using technology as a seamless partner to maximum effect.”

HIMSS Maturity Models

HIMSS’s suite of healthcare maturity models provide prescriptive frameworks to healthcare organizations to build their digital health ecosystems. Each eight-stage (0-7) maturity model operates as a vendor-neutral roadmap for success and offers global benchmarking.

Learn more about the maturity models.