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GE Healthcare and Al Iman Hospital in Riyadh highlight success of hospital efficiency improvements at Arab Health

Hospital benefits include increase in operating room utilization, surgery patients per week and reduction in waiting lists

Dubai, UAE; January 25, 2011: GE Healthcare, the healthcare business of General Electric Company (GE) , and Al Iman Hospital in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - a Ministry of Health (MoH) hospital offering the entire spectrum of medical and surgical services, highlighted the success of their collaboration in enhancing hospital efficiency, at Arab Health 2011, the world's second largest healthcare exhibition being held until January 27 at the Dubai International Convention Center.

Today, a growing population and more demanding patients combined with higher competition and budgetary constraints are forcing healthcare providers across the Middle East to change the way they operate. Launched by Al Iman hospital as part of the Ministry's initiative to increase access, improve quality and reduce cost across its hospitals, their first project was around patient flow improvement.

"The need for this important project stemmed from suboptimal utilization of our hospital's operating theatre, delayed surgical start time, and inefficient management of elective surgical lists. Our needs were met through the introduction of new tools and methodologies from GE Healthcare's Performance Solutions business. Overall, the hospital achieved excellent results," said Dr. Yasser Basatini, Medical Director, Al Iman General Hospital, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

"Through the implementation of improvements, our hospital increased the utilization of elective Operating Rooms (OR) by 80%, increased by 27% our patient caseloads per week, reduced surgical elective waiting lists by 52% and we achieved a 57% improvement in starting surgeries on time. We were able to handle more cases in our operating theatres without the need for new buildings or expanding the OR space. Simply, we were able to do more with the same resources," added Dr. Basatini.

GE Healthcare's Performance Solutions business partners with hospitals and health authorities to help them improve their performance. This is achieved by leveraging GE 's operational improvement tools well-recognized in the industrial world today, as well as leveraging GE Healthcare's clinical expertise and technological capabilities. The introduction of these best practices in the Middle East enables a rising number of healthcare providers to improve their performance by applying GE 's proven tools and expertise.

"With the global healthcare landscape changing, operational excellence is now a necessity. The challenge is to identify and implement new ways. It is gratifying to see the results that Al Iman Hospital achieved with the help of our Performance Solutions teams and their specific expertise and tools. Our healthymagination strategy is our GE commitment to support these hospitals in addressing their challenges. The United States and Europe have already begun their transformation towards operational excellence. The Middle East region is on its way," said Fida Ghantous, General Manager for GE Healthcare's Performance Solutions business in the Middle East, Africa, Turkey and Russia.

For this first project with Al Iman Hospital, GE Healthcare's Performance Solutions team, alongside hospital management and front line staff utilized Lean, Six Sigma and Change Acceleration Process methodology and tools to drive improvements in the hospitals' surgical patient pathway.

"This collaborative method enabled the hospital staff to own the changes happening across their departments, driving commitment and ensuring acceptance across the wider organization," added Dr. Basatini.

Dr. Basatini added: "Inefficiencies exist within our hospital and in most other hospitals in the Kingdom and in the region. We are very keen to continue working with GE Healthcare's Performance Solutions business and we will be soon engaging with them various projects across our hospital to drive improvements and establish a performance based culture."

"It is exciting to see the commitment and dedication of Al Iman's teams to drive improvements and a performance based culture to better address their patients' needs. In fact, many hospitals in the region share similar objectives and are enabling a strong performance improvement momentum in the region and we are honored to be able to help them doing so," concluded Ghantous.

GE Healthcare, a Platinum Sponsor of Arab Health 2011, is showcasing its innovative technologies, services and solutions at its pavilion, in Hall No 4, G30.

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About GE Healthcare:
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our broad expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies, performance improvement and performance solutions services help our customers to deliver better care to more people around the world at a lower cost. In addition, we partner with healthcare leaders, striving to leverage the global policy change necessary to implement a successful shift to sustainable healthcare systems.

Our "healthymagination" vision for the future invites the world to join us on our journey as we continuously develop innovations focused on reducing costs, increasing access and improving quality around the world. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE ). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employees are committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries.

For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at www.gehealthcare.com. For our latest news, please visit http://newsroom.gehealthcare.com/http://newsroom.gehealthcare.com.

About Al Iman hospital
Al Iman hospital is a 220 bed Ministry of Health Hospital located in the center of Riyadh. The hospital sees the highest percentage of trauma cases in Riyadh and offers the entire spectrum of medical and surgical services. Al Iman hospital has been recently accredited by the CBAHI. (Saudia Arabia's Central Board of Accreditation for Healthcare Institutions).

For more information, contact:
Kelly Home / Nivine William
ASDA'A Burson-Marsteller
+9714 334 4550
k.home@asdaa.com / n.william@asdaa.com

© Press Release 2011