“Our first objective is to make sure our patients feel that we are truly passionate, caring and authentic when it comes to improving their health,” explains Ava Olegario, Project and Clinic System Manager.

“But we will truly differentiate ourselves with our approach and attitude to customer service,” adds Samuel Alejaga, Senior Manager for the IT Department.

“Offering a completely unified imaging platform, Enterprise Imaging will support My Clinic to ensure that patients receive the best care, at any of the group’s sites around the country.”

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has an advanced healthcare sector, much of it focused around inpatient hospitals. Nazer Group is working to extend the healthcare options with a network of one-stop-shop outpatient clinics – called “My Clinic” – offering a range of services including women’s health, children’s health, chronic disease management, dentistry, radiology, cardiology and more.

My Clinic’s growth goals are an important part of its overall philosophy of combining patient-centric care and service. In addition to partnering with top healthcare facilities and hospitals around the world, Nazer Group aims to expand rapidly to provide the same, high level of care from each My Clinic site.

“All clinics will have a centralized system,” explains Ava Olegario, adding that “This is where Agfa HealthCare shines with its Enterprise Imaging solution.”

More than a PACS, a VNA or a reporting solution, Enterprise Imaging centralizes all of the patient’s imaging information, from different sources, and makes it available to caregivers, wherever they are.

“We built the first My Clinic site from ‘scratch’ – sourcing the location, finishing the building, acquiring and installing medical equipment as well as information systems, developing the workflows and processes, etc.,” explains Samuel Alejaga. “It took about two years in all, and we were very fortunate to have the experience of our colleagues from Nazer Group.”

When it became time to select an imaging management system, Agfa HealthCare stood out for its solution, its expertise, and its service.

Ava Olegario describes: “We were looking for a solution that would be easy to use but technically advanced, support our value-based care and growth goals, fit our processes, enable us to continuously improve our level of service.”

Samuel Alejaga adds, “Our hospital information system (HIS) was also built from scratch and we needed to find an imaging system that could integrate with it. Agfa HealthCare’s technology has proven itself around the world, so we knew integration would not be a problem with Enterprise Imaging.”

Based on these criteria, and after the competitive selection process, My Clinic chose to implement the Enterprise Imaging for Radiology, Enterprise Imaging for Cardiology and Enterprise Imaging Business Intelligence (BI) modules. Enterprise Imaging for Radiology is now up and running.

“The speed and flexibility of reporting enhance the clinical care and the patient experience”, Ms. Olegario describes. “Imagine: a patient does an MRI, and before they are even out of the examination room, the report is ready. The physician has direct access to the report. That’s real value-based care.”

For in-house radiologist Dr. Anas AbdulAzeem, the solution provides the tools and functionalities he needs for diagnosis, reporting, collaboration and more. “The streamlined, uncluttered interface, intuitive features and customizable desktop make the solution easy to use,” he starts. “And the measurement tools, in particular those for orthopedics, ultrasound and MRI, and multiplanar reconstruction (MPR) are all very helpful to me.”

The sectional reporting, which offers a guideline for naturally and logically grouping various parts of a radiology report, is very comfortable to use, while still offering the flexibility to adapt the report to the radiologist’s own style. Standardizing radiology reports in the clinic enables clinicians to more easily read reports and find the information they need.

Enterprise Imaging also enhances collaboration between colleagues and with the outside radiology reading service the clinic uses. Dr. AbdulAzeem describes: “If I want to co-author a report with a colleague, for example, the system makes it easy to get a signature from both of us, and then allows me to validate the report.

On the other hand, once I have opened a file and begun working on it, no-one else can then open it. And once a report has been signed off, no-one can make further changes to it. These functionalities reduce error, and further enhance the quality of patient care.”

The reading radiologists outside the clinic have the same, real-time access to studies, enabling a smooth workflow inside and outside the clinic. “I simply inform them that there is a study available, they can access it directly, make the report right in the solution, and sign it off” he explains. “At the same time the solution is more secure and ensures greater confidentiality for the patient.”

Another functionality he appreciates is the ability to merge or to split images and studies. “Say that a patient comes in for a Doppler ultrasound of the arterial and the venous systems. On the modality, these are one, combined order. But we will want to look at the images for the arterial system separately from the venous system. The technician can easily split them directly at the modality, into two distinct studies. So, when we are reading later, we don’t have to switch back and forth between venous and arterial images. That’s a function that both the technician and the reading radiologist appreciate.”

Our goal is to build the best outpatient clinic in the Arab world, and we will keep improving our services to ensure the best patient care and experience. Enterprise Imaging plays, and will play, a huge role in improving the experiences and outcomes of our patients.”

“We were looking for a solution that would be easy to use but technically advanced, that would support our value-based care and growth goals, that would fit our processes, and that would enable us to continuously improve our level of service. Enterprise Imaging plays, and will play, a huge role in improving the experiences and outcomes of our patients.”