King Salman Heart Center (KSHC) at King Fahad Medical City (KFMC) in Riyadh is considered a local benchmark and one of the most significant cardiac centers in the region, which is led by highly experienced national cadres, providing 24/7 services including heart diseases and surgeries, adult and pediatric vascular surgery and thoracic surgery. In addition to that, KSHC has performed so far more than 15,000 diagnostic and interventional cardiac catheterizations and 5,000 cardiac, vascular and thoracic surgeries.
Mahmoud AbdulJabar Al-Yamany, CEO of KFMC said: the Medical City has a prominent position on the level of development movement in KSA through its medical excellence and the critical specialized services for people, indicating that KSHC will undergo an expansion as part of the projects of modern medical centers. Al-Yamany praised the support of His Excellency Tawfeek Al Rabiah, the Minister of Health, and his concern to complete such health projects and provide highest quality specialized services for patients in accordance with the health strategy.
Dr Fahad Al ghofaili, the Medical Director of KSHC said that: "KSHC had been officially opened on December 5th, 2005 under the auspices of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman Bin Abdulaziz - May Allah preserve him, at the time when he was Prince of Riyadh, and since then, KSHC is honored to bear his name and still enjoys support and auspices of His Majesty.
According to Al ghofaili, the year 2016 has witnessed an increased number of patients admitted as well as adult and pediatric surgeries due to the practical and technical progress and human resources of KSHC who are available for serving the patients. KSHC has recorded in its statistics for the end of October that it has performed 6,035 adult Cardiac Catheterizations, 405 pediatric Cardiac Catheterizations and 975 cardiac, vascular and thoracic surgeries, in addition to admitting 1,628 critical cases and 3,179 noncritical cases. Also KSHC received 28,291 adult and pediatric patients in out-patient clinics of most of KSHC's departments and specializations.
405 Pediatric Cardiac Catheterizations for 2016
Units of the Center
Al Ghofaili indicated that KSHC has five units equipped with advanced digital technology: Heart Diseases Unit, Heart Surgery Unit, Pediatric and Adult Vascular Unit, Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU) and Thoracic Surgery Unit.
Also KSHC contains:
Four operating rooms
Four cardiac catheterization rooms
Electrophysiological cardiac catheterization laboratory
Two hybrid laboratories for vascular and pediatric heart diseases – considered first of its kind in the Middle East.
KSHC has passed through three stages of expansion and development. The first stage was reaching a capacity of 41 beds with one cardiac catheterization room. The second stage was raising the capacity to 132 beds, two interventional cardiac catheterization rooms and two operating rooms as well as 35 beds in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit. In the third stage, KSHC was more expanded and developed to reach a capacity of 164 beds by introducing services of adult vascular surgery and pediatric cardiology. Also, the department included pediatric coronary angioplasty in the intensive care unit, which has a capacity of 13 beds, an admission department with 16 beds, and two operating rooms with state of art technologies, in addition to a hybrid room for cardiac catheterizations (which can be used as a state-of-the-art operating room).
The fourth stage of KSHC development is expected to be completed in the beginning of 2017. It aims at expanding KSHC's capacity to reach 255 beds. A new feature will be added to KSHC by providing a center for heart patient recovery after cardiac catheterizations and surgeries and establishing a comprehensive program for thoracic diseases and surgeries including early detection of lung tumor and esophageal cancer.
Medical Services
KSHC Medical Director added: "King Salman Heart Center in KFMC is a medical benchmark in KSA. It provides all pediatric and adult medical services for cardiac diseases and surgery and vascular and thoracic surgeries. To date, KSHC has performed more than 15,000 diagnostic and interventional cardiac catheterization surgeries and also more than 5,000 open heart surgeries for adults, in addition to some of currently new services, which include:
- Using interventional catheter for aortic valve replacement
- Using interventional catheter for mitral valve regurgitation treatment
- Treating trial fibrillation by interventional catheter to reduce complications of chronic disease such as stroke; without using blood thinners.
- Using interventional catheter for congenital heart defects treatment.
- Program for advanced endoscopic thoracic surgeries.
- Advanced ultrasound-based treatment for varicose veins
- Program of robotic cardiac surgeries.
- Program of advanced heart failure patients and insertion of supporting heart pump as an alternative permanent solution.
- Program for temporary respiratory failures treatment particularly Corona patients and temporarily use of artificial lung pump (ECMO[HA1] ).
- Unit of interventional catheter-based vascular surgeries.
- Program of interventional catheter-based mitral valvuloplasty for patients suffering from rheumatic heart disease.
National Cadres and Training
About developing and training national cadres, Dr Fahad Al Ghofaili mentioned that there are three groups of cadres: Medical Cadres, Technical Cadres and Nursing Cadres.
National Cadres in KSHC are highly qualified personnel and represent 70 percent of the staff, while foreign cadres and experienced personnel represent approximately 30 percent, national technical cadres represent 95 percent, and national nursing cadres represent 40 percent. He also indicated that there are 30 personnel have been granted scholarships in various cardiac specializations.
"We provide qualifying and training workshops and grant cadres regional and international scholarships in order to gain further qualification, training and experiences in cardiac surgery and vascular & thoracic surgery and be familiar with the state of art technologies in this field."
He pointed out that KSHC is recognized and approved by Saudi Commission for Health Specialties to give training in adult and pediatric cardiac specializations and vascular & thoracic surgeries.
28,000 visits to outpatient clinics in 2016.
International Relationships
In terms of external cooperation with medical centers, Al Ghofaili stated that KSHC has cooperative relationships with various regional and international centers. KSHC has achieved the Saudi Quality Standards and was accredited by (JCI). Additionally, KSHC is an active member in the Saudi Heart Association and Gulf Heart Association. KDHC also has communications with heart associations in a number of European countries, and with the American Heart Association, with the aim of gaining experiences and training national cadres. KSHC contributions also include regional and international participation in discussions and providing search papers, studies and worksheets relating to heart diseases and ways of prevention.
Strategic Programs and Projects:
KSHC's Medical Director also mentioned that KSHC has a number of specialized programs including:
- Acute Stroke Program "Life-Saving" in cooperation with the Saudi Red Crescent Authority and MOH Emergency Program, which is a shift in heart services and is in conformity with international standards.
- Program for inserting artificial pump in acute and chronic heart failure, which is an integrated program in all areas of specialization and has positive future insights in light of scarcity of resources (organ donation).
- Unit for all congenital and acquired heart defects treatment –first of its kind in Middle East, which provides a wide comprehensiveness.
- Vascular unit for interventional catheterization-based advanced treatment without surgery.
- Thoracic Surgery Unit; and initiating national programs for early detection of malignant lung tumors and esophageal cancer to impact positively on results.
[HA1]
Please check the accuracy of the Acronym.