Haitham Al Subaihi, Executive Director, Capital Health Screening Center (CHSC) • Interview

CHSC, a part of Mubadala Health, was a crucial part of the UAE’s pandemic response.

How did you react to the pandemic, and what were the immediate lessons learned as an organization?

As part of Mubadala Health, we played a key role in its response to the pandemic, and CHSC actively supported many initiatives to mitigate the impact of COVID-19, which included retraining and reassigning some of our employees to other areas. We set up our COVID-19 screening clinic in Mussafah in record time to support the extension of the country’s high-density testing strategy in this industrial zone. Within just 10 days, we had the clinic ready and fully equipped with IT integration, staff training, PPE, and other supplies. We gained considerable knowledge in this process and are using this as we resume our regular business in “the new normal.” We also refurbished one of our mobile clinics to convert it into a COVID-19 screening unit that can be based anywhere, for example at universities or companies. More recently, we launched a drive-through COVID-19 screening facility in front of our Al Jazira branch on Muroor Road, to provide a convenient testing location for residents. We have also launched along with our fellow Mubadala Health’ providers, National Reference Laboratory and Abu Dhabi Telemedicine Centre, an occupational health return-to-work package, which we are providing the same service for some of our clients to their employee return-to-work business needs, ensuring high occupational health and safety standards as recommended by local and global authorities.

What other opportunities do you see for extending lessons learned from the pandemic?

The experience provided us with a wealth of knowledge that CHSC both learned and leveraged in relations to occupational health. An example is the Mubadala Health’s Wellness Ambassador program, which was created to support Etihad Airways’ goal to showcase the capital as a safe destination to live in and visit. CHSC collaborated very closely with our fellow Mubadala Health facilities and our occupational health specialists assisted in training select staff from the Mubadala Health network to serve as Wellness Ambassadors who ensured that precautionary measures such as physical distancing, hygiene practices, and mask-wearing were followed, while also offering advice and answering any questions patients and visitors have.

How has the pandemic affected your use of technology, and what infrastructure changes and upgrades did you have to put in place?

We are fortunate to be part of a large healthcare network, so we learned a great deal from our sister facilities about the measures that needed to be taken. In particular, we relied on Healthpoint’s expertise and guidance in training our staff and implementing safety measures. When we started our COVID-19 clinic in Mussafah, one of the important areas we looked at was the interaction between guests and the registration officer. We closed off the area with glass, and we had a wireless speaker, microphone, and small TV to facilitate communication. All this ensured we had the proper safety measures to mitigate or reduce chances of being infected. We also leveraged our flexible infrastructure, for example using mobile clinics with advance equipment that we already had to be able to move nimbly into areas where COVID-19 screening facilities were needed.

Did you have to do any reskilling or up-skilling of your employees?

Yes, and that change was expected. As new techniques and processes were developed, we needed to bring our employees out of their comfort zones and have them do something different. We had to change the way we provided our services. The pandemic made us realize how fortunate we are at CHSC in that our employees can easily adapt to changes, and are extremely loyal. They are also not resistant to change or adapting to new technology. From our side, it was important that we gave them the right tools and ensured that they knew how to use this technology by providing proper training, doing a pilot test before we went live, and so on.