RIYADH — The 2nd patient relations symposium opened at InterContinental Hotel here Saturday with the participation of more than 220 healthcare officials and employees. Over 20 experts from the Kingdom, France, Spain, Australia, the US and GCC countries will speak at the two-day symposium. Dr. Abdullah Bin Hamad Bin Zar'ah, Chairman of the Symposium and the Executive Director of Clinical Affairs at Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Humanitarian City in Riyadh, said the majority of the participants were from the Ministry of Health hospitals. “The main aim of the symposium is to raise the awareness level on the importance of patient satisfaction among healthcare workers, including physicians, nurses, technicians and administrators,” he told Saudi Gazette. Dr. Zar'ah, who participated in a session on the importance of quality standards on the first day of the conference, said there was consensus among the participants on the need to consider the rights of patients not as a matter of choice but as an obligation at all healthcare facilities in the Kingdom. Pascal Gand, Vice President for Sales, Europe and Middle East at WelchAllyn who moderated a session on healthcare IT as an enabler for patient safety and effective communication, said, “Putting together medical devices and instruments along with IT infrastructure will really improve the quality of the data taken and access to right information for the right person, whether a physician, nurse or administrator, at the right time to take the right decision. “The problem in this is that today we have the technology but we do not have the key to open the door. There are very little hospitals that acquire the key (to technology), thus reducing the errors resulting from manual work,” he said. The conference will continue on Sunday.
