Al Ain, UAE, April 8, 2013: In accordance with the concerted bid by SEHA, the Abu Dhabi Health Services Company, to facilitate healthcare provision to special needs patients, Tawam Hospital announced today that it had advanced four initiatives that will impact healthcare provision in Abu Dhabi. It has opened a Down syndrome clinic, processed 185 Absher cards, co-hosted the third quarterly Mas’aool community outreach meeting and launched a hotline to help schedule special needs appointments faster. It has also increased the number of parking spaces for special needs patients at its premises.
Absher cards facilitate follow up visits of special needs patients to SEHA healthcare facilities and also give them priority access to OPD, Pharmacy, X-ray and other service points. This SEHA initiative demonstrates the interest and care that its facilities take of disabled persons and its commitment to the welfare of people with special needs.
Tawam Hospital also launched a hotline for people with special needs which will help schedule their appointments faster. Central Stores at the hospital established a special phone line for people with special needs by which their requests can be addressed in a more rapid and efficient way.
These announcements were made at the third quarterly Mas’aool community outreach meeting held under the auspices of SEHA at Ayla Hotel, Al Ain. The meeting was organised jointly by Tawam Hospital and Al Ain Hospital and provided an informal setting that allowed patients and their families to meet SEHA decision makers. Special needs patients and their families apprised SEHA officials of the issues they faced in accessing quality healthcare in Abu Dhabi and provided feedback on new initiatives.
Commenting at the successful conclusion of the third Mas’aool meeting, Humaid Al Mansouri, Deputy CEO, Tawam Hospital said: “In addition to feedback from these community meetings, an exciting new outreach by SEHA, we also conducted a Patient’s Satisfaction survey during the last quarter of 2012. Recommendations from that survey were put into action and have resulted in new initiatives that have impacted our service levels.
‘We are now addressing the requirements of special needs patients better and are looking at ways to be more innovative in our approach. We will work with SEHA and its partner institutions to set up more of these meetings and announce new initiatives that will make our service levels a benchmark across the world.”
The quarterly Mas’aool town hall meetings will be held at the premises of different SEHA healthcare providers each quarter.
“SEHA is committed to the development of a system of world class healthcare in Abu Dhabi. SEHA recognizes that excellence requires transparency and an ethos of regular feedback from stakeholders. SEHA’s outreach campaign is an attempt to create open yet informal channels of communication with customers who are directly impacted by healthcare provision standards,” said Khalifa Al Sghayer Al Ketbi, Group Deputy Chief Operations Officer at SEHA. “We are hoping to establish clear channels for quality feedback to ensure we take on board stakeholder concerns.”
Tawam Hospital is part of the SEHA Health System and is owned and operated by SEHA, which is responsible for the curative activities of all the public hospitals and clinics in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.
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About Tawam Hospital
Tawam Hospital, in affiliation with Johns Hopkins Medicine, is a premier 461-bed tertiary care facility located in Al Ain, Abu Dhabi; one of the largest hospitals in the United Arab Emirates. With over 22,000 admissions in 2012 and an average 73 percent occupancy rate, Tawam offers services in specialties including oncology, neonatal care, emergency medicine, intensive care, surgery, urology, family medicine, fertility services, neurosurgery, nephrology, pediatrics , pain management, internal medicine and obstetrics & gynecology.
Tawam serves as a regional referral center for specialized medical care and is a national referral center for oncology services. Tawam Hospital received program accreditation in 2012 from the American College of Graduate Medical Education – International, and is a recognized intern, resident, and fellowship training site for the Arab Medical Board. Tawam Hospital is accredited by the Joint Commission International Accreditation, last renewed in 2012, and its laboratory services are accredited by the College of American Pathology.
With an average of 330 daily inpatients, Tawam Hospital is the preferred destination for quality medical care in the UAE. In 2012, the ER unit received over 116,000 patients, and hospital clinic visits exceeded 489,000. Tawam’s team of renowned surgeons performed over 7,700 surgeries during the year, while the dental clinic served over 84,000 patients. During the year, Tawam adopted a single room model in its medical and surgical wards, upgraded the pediatric extended care unit to 10 beds, expanded and relocated its In-vitro Fertilization Unit, remodeled a surgical unit, expanded our Endoscopy Unit, added 19 private rooms to our oncology program, and provided additional special needs parking spaces to serve our clients better. Innovations in clinical care were adopted to treat patients using an evidence-based approach during life-threatening situations to include formation of the ICU Outreach Team and implementation of a Pediatric Early Warning Score process and Rapid Response Team.
More than 4,100 babies were born at Tawam Hospital in 2012. In the same year, the hospital performed over 18,300 CT/MRI procedures, 110,000 radiology exams, 120,000 physiotherapy/ occupational therapy procedures and more than 3,400,000 laboratory tests. The average length of stay at Tawam Hospital in 2012 was 5.45 days.
Tawam Hospital actively recruits and engages a national workforce. On average, the Emiratization rate at Tawam is 30 percent. Tawam Hospital is part of the SEHA Health System, owned and operated by Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (SEHA) which is responsible for the curative activities of all the public hospitals and clinics of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi
About Johns Hopkins Medicine International
Johns Hopkins Medicine International (JHI) facilitates the global development of the Johns Hopkins Medicine mission: to improve the health of the community and the world by setting the standard of excellence in medical education, research and clinical care.
As the international access point to thousands of Johns Hopkins experts in medicine, nursing, public health and health care administration, JHI coordinates treatment for out-of-town patients who travel to Baltimore and for local patients with limited English proficiency. It also provides services in hospital management, health care consulting and clinical education through strategic alliances and affiliations in the Middle East, Latin America, North America, Europe and Asia.
About the SEHA Health System and the Abu Dhabi Health Services Company PJSC (SEHA)
SEHA is health in Arabic. The Abu Dhabi Health Services Company PJSC- whose marketing identity is SEHA – is an independent, public joint stock company created to develop the curative activities of the public healthcare system in Abu Dhabi. The company owns and operates all the public hospitals and clinics of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi which together make up the SEHA Health System. SEHA is committed to continuous improvement of customer care to recognized international standards and providing our customers and communities served world-class healthcare. SEHA has partnered with internationally recognized hospital managers to achieve these goals. These include Johns Hopkins Medicine International, Cleveland Clinic Foundation and Fresenius Medical Care. SEHA owns and operates 12 hospitals with 2,644 beds, more than 60 ambulatory care, family care and urgent care centers and 2 blood banks. SEHA is one of the largest integrated healthcare providers in the Middle East with more than 17,000 doctors, nurses, ancillary care and administrative personnel in its employ. Visit our website at www.seha.ae
For media enquiries, please contact:
Sumaya Al Harrasi
Marketing & Business Communications Manager
Tawam Hospital
Tel.: +971 3 7074646
Mobile: +971 553051305
Fax: +971 3 7074818
Email: sharrasi@tawamhospital.ae
Amal Hamad Al Darmaki
Public Relations Officer
Tawam Hospital
Tel.: +971 3 7074646
Fax: +971 3 7074818
Mobile: +971 058329733
Email: Amaldarmaki@tawamhospital.ae
© Press Release 2013
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