Cardiac Center in Saudi Arabia Targets Medical Travelers

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May 24, 2018, 08:31 ET

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla., May 24, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Prince Sultan Cardiac Center Al Hassa (PSCC) (https://www.pscch.med.sa/en) in Hofuf, Saudi Arabia has been awarded a three-year term of "Accreditation with Excellence" by the Global Healthcare Accreditation (GHA) Program (http://globalhealthcareaccreditation.com/) for its Medical Travel Services Program. PSCC Al Hassa is the first hospital accredited by the GHA program in the Middle East.

Dr. Khalid ALKHAMEES, Executive Director of PSCC Al Hassa with staff and GHA surveyors after the accreditation survey in May.

Situated in the city of Hofuf in the Al-Hassa region, in an oasis renowned for its historical and cultural attractions as well as the production of a rich variety of dates, Prince Sultan Cardiac Center Al Hassa is a tertiary referral center for patients from all over the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and increasingly the GCC region, seeking complex cardiac care. Among its many achievements, PSCC Al Hassa is the first government hospital in KSA to succeed nine times in the implantation of the smallest left ventricular assistive device in the world and has achieved Joint Commission International Clinical Care Program Certification (CCPC) in acute myocardial infarction treatment and heart failure treatment.

PSCC Al Hassa's accreditation by GHA was announced at the recent European Medical Tourism Congress in Athens, Greece, where Dr. Khalid Alkhamees, Chief Executive Officer at PSCC Al Hassa, participated in a session titled "Accreditation in Medical Travel Driving Patient Excellence," moderated by Karen Timmons, GHA's Chief Executive Officer.

In 2016, the Global Healthcare Accreditation (GHA) Program was established with the goal of enhancing the patient experience for medical travelers across the entire Medical Travel Care Continuum. GHA provides concrete and measurable value to patients by ensuring that the hospital or clinic has instituted processes that are customized to the medical travelers' unique needs and expectations and are constantly monitored for improvement. Additionally, GHA provides healthcare organizations with a unique opportunity to not only acquire skills and competencies designed to strengthen their medical travel services, but also impact business performance. GHA has accredited recognized healthcare providers in Croatia, Greece, Mexico, Thailand, The United States, and now the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

According to Dr. Khalid, "Prince Sultan Cardiac Center Al Hassa has taken a strategic and very aggressive approach to continually improve the quality of our clinical services as well as the patient experience. Our goal is to position our hospital as a leading reference center for cardiac services in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the GCC region. With this goal in mind, over the past two years we have gathered a multidisciplinary and multinational team of specialists, added new specialties and technologies and instilled a culture of excellence among our team – all of which have contributed to better performance, increased patient volume and ultimately improved healthcare outcomes. At PSCC Al Hassa the patient always comes first; thus choosing Global Healthcare Accreditation was a logical choice and next step as we continually strive to better serve the needs of the growing number of medical travelers that visit us from other parts of Saudi Arabia and abroad. GHA not only validated the quality of our medical travel services, but also helped us to identify gaps and opportunities for improvement along PSCC Al Hassa's medical travel care continuum. We are honored to join a select group of GHA accredited healthcare providers from around the globe who have all committed to improve the patient experience for medical travelers."

Karen Timmons, Chief Executive Officer of the Global Healthcare Accreditation Program stated, "We congratulate Prince Sultan Cardiac Center Al Hassa for achieving GHA Accreditation with Excellence and for its commitment to designing a care continuum that supports the needs of medical travel patients and companions whether they are traveling from within Saudi Arabia or internationally. Healthcare providers should keep in mind that medical travelers often have little or no knowledge about the medical travel process or the procedures or protocols used by overseas hospitals. Therefore significant hand-holding throughout the medical travel care continuum is required to ensure that the patient's needs and expectations are met. GHA Standards focus on the entire medical travel care continuum and specifically how all steps in the care continuum contribute to an overall safe, high quality medical travel experience. Additionally, GHA reviews business functions and processes related to medical travel. Because GHA focuses on the entire Medical Travel Care Continuum, those business functions within an organization that impact the medical travel program, such as marketing, finance, and technology are enhanced."

About Prince Sultan Cardiac Center Al Hassa:

Prince Sultan Cardiac Center Al Hassa is a referral center for all complex heart-related cases for adults and children in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and gulf countries. The center has approximately 450 staff including clinical and non-clinical under the Ministry of Health and Hospital Operations Program. The center provides a number of specialized clinical services including primary Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), Trans Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI), Pacemaker Implantation, Valve replacements/repairs, Coronary Angiography Bypass Grafting (CABG), Surgical Atrial Septal Defect (ASD) Closure and Left Ventricular Support Devices. For more information contact: +966135730000 or [email protected].

About the Global Healthcare Accreditation (GHA) Program:

The Global Healthcare Accreditation (GHA) Program is an independent accrediting body that seeks to improve the patient experience and excellence of care received by patients who travel for their medical care and treatment, whether within their own country or internationally. The GHA program complements existing national and international clinical accreditation programs. While these programs traditionally focus on the clinical aspects of care for the entire organization, GHA conducts a deep review of the International or Global Patient Services program, or the entity within an organization that serves the medical travel patient. GHA also provides advisory and custom education services for organizations interested in improving their medical travel program and/or business performance.

Organizations interested in The Global Healthcare Accreditation Program, medical travel or health tourism, can make a request at [email protected] |Tel US 001.561.327.9557 |www.GlobalHealthcareAccreditation.com

SOURCE Global Healthcare Accreditation