eHOpe is based on the Oracle Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) due to its superior performance and excellent graphical user interface capabilities. The Oracle RDBMS is delivered on more than 120 hardware platforms. To the healthcare provider, this means unlimited expandability and connectivity to every major supplier of hardware and related peripheral devices. Oracle provides many tools that are very helpful to database administrators and advanced users, such as report generators and tools that show database capacity and performance.

eHOpe is designed to be modular and expandable system. It consists of around 40 modules covering financial, medical, administrative, hotel services, and ancillary services. Healthcare providers may choose all or a selection of these modules based on their needs.

eHOpe modules are all integrated and act as a central information system for hospital facilities, services, divisions, and staff. With minimum human intervention, information flows into the system as a consequence of the activities in different sections of a hospital. Information entered in a specific module is automatically viewable in related modules. eHOpe modules are tightly integrated since they share a common electronic patient record. As information is made available from one system, other systems also gain immediate access to it.

eHOpe makes use of the easiest and most widespread international coding standards so as to ensure standardization between all types of healthcare providers. Using international coding standards will further maintain hospital information compatibility with peer hospitals, and allow for proper research to be conducted either by the hospital or by any other public health researcher. All of these codes are expandable by the user and updateable as new versions become internationally available. Some of the standard international codes used by eHOpe are: ICD (International Classification of Disease), CPT (physician Current Procedural Terminology), HCPCS (HCFA Common Procedure Coding System), and NUBC (National Uniform Billing Committee) and SNOMED.

The eHOpe system meets the requirements of the Arab world, where all financial modules are bilingual and include all the features and requirements applicable in the Middle East. Moreover, eHOpe is culturally acceptable and recognizes in its design the propriety requirements of the Middle East.

The flexibility of eHOpe allows you to tailor its general preferences through parameterization as per your hospital needs. The systems enable you to setup the definitions of your organization’s units and needed resources, physical locations, stores, medication families, asset families, billing classes, price lists, physician procedures and equipment, fiscal year and periods, known holidays, and currencies, ,among other user controlled structures. eHOpe provides the ability to control many of the administrative tasks associated with hospital supplies, stores, medications, narcotics, waste, and equipment maintenance.

The eHOpe system provides user-friendly Graphical User Interface (GUI) through the use of personal computer clients that communicate with back-end servers handling all information. eHOpe has standard and consistent human interface on all displays in the system, making it easy to use and memorize. The eHOpe system allows the user to sort data in ascending and descending order that displays onscreen by clicking on the column header. This is possible in most of the displays unless technically not possible.

The eHOpe system supports HL7 Version 3 messages that would allow it to integrate with external devices and systems such as Lab machines and PACS systems. Taking the PACS interface as an example, the HL7 interface is used to receive and transmit data to the HIS via HL7 messages. As for the Lab machines interfaces, each Lab machine uses certain sets of HL7 commands according to the nature of the machine and tests performed at each machine. For each message received by the File Interface, an MSA message may optionally be returned. Incoming data is validated based on message type and basic syntax. The version of HL7 used for the validation test is defined in the configuration files of the HL7 interface.

eHOpe increases productivity and quality of service of hospital staff by reducing clerical work and allowing staff to allocate more time to health care services. eHOpe provides online access to medical records from all the facilities in a hospital, and provides fast and efficient retrieval of information to assist doctors and nurses in patient treatment. eHOpe facilitates scheduling and appointments for any and all hospital functions.

eHOpe provides detailed information about patients to medical staff that can reduce medical treatment risk — displaying patient allergies, conflict examination checks, habits, immunizations, etc

eHOpe provides hospital management with detailed up-to-date reports that can assist in the decision support process. Hospital administration can utilize eHOpe to generate statistics based on types of disease, gender, time, and other factors that can help in making decisions at the management level.

eHOpe reduces paper work by allowing users to initiate all work processes electronically. The system also facilitates electronic scheduling and setting appointments for all hospital functions.

eHOpe supports both English and Arabic, and all Financial modules can be used in either English or Arabic interfaces. A user can open an Arabic session and an English session on the same screen at the same time. As for medical modules, and since English is the standard medical language, only a few fields are supported in Arabic, such as patient names.

eHOpe implements many levels of security to safeguard information confidentiality. The first level is implemented using groups and passwords to connect to any system. The second level is implemented by granting selected groups of users authority to access and perform certain transactions in a specific module. Finally, at the third level (the “need-to-know” level), only information required by specific, authorized users is displayed, and, in the same way, certain functions need supervisor approval to become actionable. eHOpe applies a security module called Ideal Access Manager (IAM) that allows administrators to control the access of all users up to the field level with multiple levels of security. This module is the core of all eHOpe security. It provides users with very advanced security controls and software deployment capabilities. All aspects of the eHOpe interface are controlled through IAM, which further allows maximum flexibility in customizing security rights. • Each function, report, button, column, and menu item in eHOpe can be security controlled from IAM to allow for the most demanding security environments. The basic security functions (Add, Modify, Delete, and View) related to each of these objects can be defined for each user. The security measures also extend one level down, where security restrictions on the IP address level can be also defined. • Various restrictions can be applied on passwords, such as expiration dates and incorrect passwords trials before locking, and IP address restriction per user. • The security system can show users currently logged in, the times they log in and out, and the IP addresses from which they have done so. The security system can also direct users to a default module routinely accessed by specific users.

eHOpe has the capacity to manipulate data quickly and easily. And in the event that a user wants to generate reports that have not previously been used, hospital-specific users can be trained to use Oracle Discoverer to build their own reports based on certain criteria.

eHOpe supports interfacing with barcode readers, scanners, cameras, and other input devices that can be used all over the hospital. Optimiza does not recommend saving images within eHOpe due to the large file size of images, but it is possible to link records to scanned images and browse them as needed

eHOpe supports the printing of any report to a predefined printer or printers according to the nature of report that is being printed. For example, it is possible to automatically print a lab order that is entered in outpatient clinics at the lab printer. It is also possible to preview reports onscreen (printing on screen) before directing the report to the printer. Some financial transactions will not be posted unless the user confirms that the printing of the report has been done successfully (such as posting patient invoices). Printing reports can be done on any kind of printer — dot matrix printers, laser printers, inkjet printers, label printers, bar code printers, etc.

eHOpe supports customizing headers used on various kinds of reports, and different headers can be attached to different reports and labels.