FAQ

Electronic Health Solutions (EHS) is a private, non-profit, innovative, technology-driven company. It works on transforming the concepts and practices of health and medical care in Jordan through the provision of automation solutions that enhance the quality and efficiency of healthcare offerings. The company has been established in early 2009. 

It focuses on deploying effective and proven technologies that leverage the best clinical practices to serve public health in Jordan.

EHS owners are:

1. Ministry of Health (MoH).
2. Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship.
3. Royal Medical Services (of the Jordanian Armed Forces).
4. King Hussein Cancer Foundation (Owner of King Hussein Cancer Center).
5. Private Hospitals Association.
6. Royal Health Awareness Society.
7. King Abdullah II Fund for Development.

EHS board of directors is formed by the company’s owners who represent the Kingdom's main healthcare and Technology entities.

EHS board of directors conducts regular periodic meetings to review and ensure that the company’s strategies, plans and performance are executed appropriately, and to assure the integrity of its financial records and reports. Additionally, they participate in various committees to support EHS initiatives: Hakeem program, the Electronic Library of Medicine-Jordan "ELM" and Hakeem Academy.

EHS board members do not receive any compensation on their efforts whether in financial compensation or in kind such as transportation, benefits etc...

The cost of integration of different systems is roughly 5 times the cost of putting in a single system nationwide. Therefore, the main health and technology stakeholders in the country agreed to develop a non-profit private company to implement a single solution all across the public health sector to prevent different entities from buying their own separate healthcare record solutions.

Hakeem program is being implemented based on the Veterans Health Association platform “VistA” which was selected for the computerization of the public health sector in Jordan.

The Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA): An enterprise-wide information system, used throughout the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical system (approximately 1200 site) and other non-VA health facilities. It is a collection of about 100 integrated software modules and built on over 20 years of continuous innovation and investment by the government of the US.

VistA is an open source package (A computer software that is available with source code; the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under an open-source license that permits users to study, change, improve and at times also to distribute the software without buying licenses).

Upon the directions of his majesty King Abdullah II Bin Al Hussein, a committee was formed by the Royal Hashemite Court (RHC) to evaluate various world class enterprise EHR solutions that can meet the needs of the Jordanian healthcare sector with proven success of improving healthcare and with the ability to scale and allow customization to fit the local needs.

The committee decided on VistA based on the listed criteria:

• The transformation model that was used in the VA healthcare system proved to be successful.
• Scalability and sizing: not many solutions continue with the same efficiency once the records are in millions, VistA is one of the few solutions that can scale up to tens of millions of records without compromising its efficiency.
• Open source technology “no vendor locks”: no licensing fees required with the availability of source code in hand, this means the Jordanians own their own EHR system.
• Cost effectiveness: this solution is cheaper than most of its equivalent EHR solutions and it ranks as the no.1 software in the US based on the latest Medscape study.
• Building capacity and sustainability: this created a new e-health ecosystem in Jordan that opened employment possibilities for young Jordanians and encouraged universities to concentrate on health informatics. 
• Built on evidence based medicine: this software is one of the few that physicians participated heavily in its development to improve workflows and efficiency.
• Low risk and large active community: The solution is supported by a large VistA community worldwide.
• Build on 20+ years of continuous innovation and investment.

Hakeem Program was officially launched in Prince Hamzah hospital and Amman Comprehensive Clinic as Hakeem pilot phase sites in 2009, during the duration of two years the company provided those institutes with equipment and network, as well as programs and applications that were tailored to the requirements of the Jordanian health sector. The program also included a comprehensive training component.

In October 2011 His Majesty King Abdullah II commended the pilot phase of the Hakeem program and expressed pride in this important national achievement and called for the program to be rolled out nationwide.

• Contributing to the creation of a comprehensive database of patients to support research and scientific studies by providing necessary and periodic statistics for authorized parties to support the decision-making process for the advancement of health care in Jordan.
• Reducing operating costs in the healthcare facilities by the utilization of resources through the storage of patient files and x-rays electronically.
• Control the frequency of medications dispensing and increase the efficiency of inventory management.
• Reduction of waste resulting from the repetition of lab tests, and significant cost reductions resulting from decreasing in-patient admissions and increasing out-patient visits through better-managed care.
• Improving healthcare services by reducing paper-work, improving the patient's journey, and enabling nurses and doctors to spend more time with the patient.
• Improve safety, quality of care and better management of chronic diseases, and Improve hospitals' workflow and provide a platform for continuous healthcare-process improvement.
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Hakeem Program aims for nationwide implementation at all facilities of the Ministry of Health, the Royal Medical Services, the King Hussein Cancer Center and Universities' hospitals.

Privacy is an underlying governing principle of the patient-physician relationship for the effective delivery of healthcare. 

VistA complies with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of the US, which guarantees the highest level of safety and confidentiality.

Hakeem program secures the privacy of patients' electronic health records by applying many features:

• "Who is who" rule: by verifying identities of the user via username, password, and e-signature.
• "Need to know" rule: privileges are granted according to users' roles and responsibilities.
• A user non-disclosure agreement (NDA): All physicians should sign an agreement to confirm their identity, responsibility, and commitment to privacy.
• Audit log: logs are used by the security department to determine privacy violations, logs cannot be deleted from the system by anyone.
• Encryption: it is used to ensure that information transmitted is only read and understood by the appropriate users.
• Private and closed network: Hakeem program is not connected to the internet in order to prevent network penetration of viruses, malware, and other harmful software applications.

EHS opted to establish an international company fully owned by EHS under the name of Electronic Health Solutions International (EHSI) in 2012. Owing to the effectiveness and success of the flagship program, “Hakeem”, EHSI aims to promote and implement Hakeem in countries interested in developing their healthcare services through computerizing this sector.

All future profits will be allocated to EHS projects in order to diversify the source of funding and ensure the completion of projects.

EHSI will extend the services of Hakeem to the private healthcare sector in Jordan and the region.

For more information visit EHSI

If you have further questions, please send an email to marketing.communications@ehs.com.jo