GE Healthcare, a global leader in healthcare solutions providing transformational medical technologies and services, announced on Saturday the introduction of a critical Health Improvement initiative with the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health (MOH) to address the country's health productivity challenges. The health improvement initiative focuses on increasing productivity in the operating rooms of four selected MOH sites throughout the Kingdom, introducing new methods for delivering change and developing a roadmap vision for how MOH can improve healthcare provision in the short, medium and long term. To achieve this, GE Healthcare's Performance Solutions team will deploy core GE change management tools like Lean, Six Sigma, Work-Out and Change Acceleration process (CAP) in order to drive sustainable process improvement. GE Healthcare has been established in Saudi Arabia for more than 25 years, and has established several private and public sector partnerships to drive the growth of the Kingdom's healthcare sector. Saudi Arabia is currently aiming at giving greater access to healthcare services to its population. A major driver in achieving this is to help the MOH's 250 hospitals to run more efficiently their manpower and technology resources. The operating room, which is at the core of the hospital, is a critical area where efficiency can be improved. Dr. Mohammad Al Khoshim, consultant to MOH Minister of Health, said: “The Ministry of Health is pleased to partner with GE Healthcare in this ambitious initiative and we look forward to leveraging GE's international expertise in the health arena as well as its experience in leading major improvement initiatives in hospitals worldwide. Today's announcement is a critical step forward in driving our key objectives around improving access to healthcare, quality of patient care and efficiency of services.” GE Healthcare is addressing the challenge through a proactive outlook. GE recently announced that it will spend $3 billion over the next six years on healthcare innovation that will help deliver better care to more people at lower cost. The company will also commit $2 billion of financing and $1 billion in related GE technology and content to drive healthcare information technology and health in rural and under-served areas. These investments totaling $6 billion are the foundation of GE's “healthymagination” initiative, which is built on the global commitments of reducing costs, improving quality and expanding access for millions of people. The MOH initiative highlights GE Healthcare's commitment to Saudi Arabia, one of the largest health markets in the region. The company has significantly invested in its strategic country service support center in Riyadh. “The Middle East region has one of the fastest growing healthcare infrastructures. We welcome this opportunity to partner with the MOH on this important Health Improvement Initiative. What we see today is that healthcare providers are facing increasing demand from patients for more and better quality services and enhanced performance and profitability from shareholders. GE's “healthymagination” strategy addresses the need for sustainable healthcare mechanisms, which will be vital in helping to transform healthcare delivery across the region,” said Aziz Koleilat, general manager, Middle East and Pakistan at GE Healthcare. __
