title: EMR Database Upgrade from MUMPS to CACHE: Lessons Learned.
abstract: Over the past few years, Saudi hospitals have been implementing and upgrading Electronic Medical Record Systems (EMRs) to ensure secure data transfer and exchange between EMRs.This paper focuses on the process and lessons learned in upgrading the MUMPS database to a the newer Caché database to ensure the integrity of electronic data transfer within a local Saudi hospital. This paper examines the steps taken by the departments concerned, their action plans and how the change process was managed. Results show that user satisfaction was achieved after the upgrade was completed. The system was stable and offered better healthcare quality to patients as a result of the data exchange. Hardware infrastructure upgrades improved scalability and software upgrades to Caché improved stability. The overall performance was enhanced and new functions were added (CPOE) during the upgrades. The essons learned were: 1) Involve higher management; 2) Research multiple solutions available in the market; 3) Plan for a variety of implementation scenarios.
authors.affiliation: College of Public Health and Health Informatics, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences (KSAU-HS), National Guard Health Affairs (NGHA), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Abduallah
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alotaibi
authors.affiliation: College of Public Health and Health Informatics, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences (KSAU-HS), National Guard Health Affairs (NGHA), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Mshary
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Emshary
authors.affiliation: College of Public Health and Health Informatics, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences (KSAU-HS), National Guard Health Affairs (NGHA), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Mowafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Househ
mesh_terms: D003628:Database Management Systems / Q000458:organization & administration*; D016208:Databases, Factual; D057286:Electronic Health Records / Q000458:organization & administration*; D066275:Health Information Exchange; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods*; D008498:Medical Record Linkage / Q000379:methods; D011381:Programming Languages; D012529:Saudi Arabia; D012984:Software