Mafraq Hospital plans ambitious neonatal and critical care expansion

Mafraq Hospital's critical care areas currently have the capacity to accommodate 59 patients in total, a figure that is set to rise to 75 once new telemetry service is introduced. Telemetry technology is a state of the art way of monitoring patients remotely. It will enable the hospital's workforce of more than 200 nurses to maintain real-time monitoring of every single patient in the hospital's care.

Their expertise is world class

The Mafraq Hospital's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is unique in the UAE. It is a fully closed unit that provides the fullest possible range of critical care facilities. These include conventional and high frequency ventilation (HFOV), inhaled nitric oxide treatment, therapeutic hypothermia and a specialist team of Board Certified consultants that are handpicked from North America.

The Unit Head of the NICU is Dr. Taisser Atrak who comments that, "Our consultants provide expertise in all of the most important areas of support including neonatal surgery, paediatric endocrinology, pediatric pulmonology, largest pediatric neurology group in UAE recruited from world-class children's hospitals in USA, pediatric neurosurgery and pediatric orthopaedics, diagnostic echocardiography and even dietary guidance and specialist NICU pharmacists. Our expertise is truly world class."

Positive patient outcomes

The NICU boasts ten neonatologists, forty nurses and four technicians dedicated to providing around-the-clock care to an increasing number of admissions. The hospital's Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Mohamad Yaman is an advocate of the hospital's 360-degree approach to care, commenting that, "Integral to the care we give is an understanding of environmental factors and patient care. Special measures are in place to deal with noise control, whilst the team actively promotes kangaroo care (skin-to-skin bonding) and breast-feeding; providing full-time lactation consultants. These 'softer' tactics are absolutely central to our overall methodology and our positive patient outcomes prove their efficacy." The NICU and special care baby units (SCBU) have expanded from fourteen to twenty-six beds in the past year and is currently recruiting more staff to support its critical care expansion plans.

Mafraq Hospital has won several awards for its state of the art facilities since its inception in 1983. It was presented with the Diamond Sheikh Khalifa Excellence Award (SKEA) in 2011, the first healthcare facility to ever receive the award. It is one of the UAE's most accredited hospitals and in recognition of its 'We Care' program, it was awarded a 2011 International Business Award (Stevie Award). Mafraq Hospital also received a UAE Customer Service Week Star Award for the 'Public Customer Service Team of the Year' category.