Report from Dubai - Day Three/Final Report

I forgot to mention in my last post that part of the conversation last night was around Arab-American perspectives. I was told that Arabs used to love going to the US for vacations but since 9/11 they have, for the most part, not returned due to the way that they were being treated. They found that they were being reported as suspicious simply for speaking Arabic in public. They also said that one of the reasons Muslim women would not fly was because they knew that some US airports employed x-ray machines that revealed a woman’s body. Not only did I state that I knew of no such devices in use, one of the physicians backed me up saying that such a machine would provide a view of a skeleton and any metal objects, but that the form of the body could not be discerned. The person who originally made the statement was suspicious about our responses and we quickly moved on to another topic.

This third and last day of my trip to Dubai was by far the best, and it had less to do with the conference than what transpired afterwards. Yes, I did have some good meetings including with the Saudi German Hospitals Group – the largest private healthcare company in the Middle East and North Africa – and two wonderful people from Jebel Ali Hospital with whom I then had lunch at the same Iranian restaurant in the hotel as where I had dinner last night (dinner was better, though I did get to have some very tasty Iranian desserts at lunch). But the invitation to visit a hospital and the subsequent dinner was the highlight.

I had initially pegged Zulekha Hospital as a potential target, but I came to realize that they really wanted just to pick my brain about some things that they were considering and to get some education on a particular area of my expertise. That was fine because what I got in return was worth it.

The tour of the hospital covered just about every inch of the facility. They are very proud of this 80-bed private hospital and the mission that it serves – and rightly so. Lead by the IT director and the director of the hospital, we saw the outpatient departments, the clinical laboratory, registration/admitting, the emergency department, patient rooms, nursing stations, the pharmacy, one of the operating rooms and the cardiac catheterization lab. It was a rare opportunity to get such an in-depth peek at a foreign hospital and being a hospital person, I not only enjoyed it all, but learned much about how healthcare is delivered in this country in the process, including a very different role for pharmacists than those that work in hospitals in the US. We then spent about an hour looking over their impressive IT infrastructure and the self-developed hospital information system that they have implemented. In that process I also learned all about the payment and reimbursement process in the country – also invaluable. We then had a long discussion about CPOE and closed loop medication processes (I don’t expect you to know what that is, and there is no simple way to explain it) with the director of the hospital, the chief pharmacist, another administrator and a physician. I figure that I gave them about an hour or two of free consulting but it was worth it given what I learned during my time there. It was positively delightful as they were so proud to show off their hospital to a knowledgeable and appreciative audience.

I should mention at this point that approximately 40% of the population of the UAE is Indian, as were all of the people that I was with, and it is this population that the hospital primarily serves. Dr. Zulekha, the founder and owner of the now two-hospital company which is also expanding in the UAE and into India, is an OB/GYN who started practicing in the early 1960’s, delivering babies by lantern light as their mothers arrived by camel. She went on to start a primary care clinic and eventually decided that high-quality, reasonably priced healthcare was needed by the Indian population so she started the hospital to serve them, with a strong focus on the patient experience. While she is still involved, her daughter and son-in-law now run the company.

In gratitude for my time, Ali – the late 20-something IT director – then took me out for one of the best meals I’ve ever had. I have always maintained that some of the best food can be found in dives and the place we went can only be described as a stand-up luncheonette counter outside a supermarket in one of the Indian sections of town. Ali just kept ordering different things, some of which I knew of, others I didn’t recognize and couldn’t pronounce so I can’t tell you what they were except that they were, for the most part, fried, spicy and delicious. Ali just kept saying “try this,” “hold it this way,” (everything was eaten by hand), “dip it in this sauce and then in this sauce,” etc. As I was still in my suit and it was about 100 degrees and humid – even in the dark of evening – he kept plying me with water and napkins with which to wipe my head. I think the whole meal cost about $7 for both of us.

It was a very nice way to wrap up my trip here. Had I known, I certainly would have stayed longer as I did not get to see most of the tourist sights and I am told that one of the best things to do is a late day 4X4 ride into the desert to a Bedouin tent where there is live music, belly dancing, camel rides and a feast fit for a king as you watch the sunset. If I come back, I will definitely try that experience. In the mean time, it is off to bed with a satisfied belly and then to the airport in the morning for the long journey home. All in all, it was a short but successful (I hope – the truth will be told in whether my meetings convert to signed contracts) trip to a strange and far off land to which I hope to someday return.