DR. REEM FAHD AL BUNYAN KFSH is a tertiary quaternary care center and is the only one in the eastern region of the country. It is considered one of the medical cities and specialized health care centers that are part of the Ministry of Health (MOH). It comes second historically after King Fahad Medical City in Riyadh. We have four centers of excellence: a large oncology center that is number one nationwide in terms of number of patients with breast cancer and number two in overall number of patients, a reputable multi-organ transplant center that is the second largest in the country and largest within MOH, a neurosciences center with a number of highly specialized programs, and a cardiac center. In addition, we have a number of signature programs under various departments. KFSH is also part of the first cluster developing in the country; it is an integrated healthcare system that would be part of a corporate entity. We now have an advisory board that is tasked with the first phase of the E1 cluster, and eventually it will become a fully enabled board of directors with autonomy and financial authorities.

MAJID I. AL FAYYADH KFSH&RC started off as a center where people could get specialist healthcare without traveling abroad. It was built in collaboration with Cleveland Clinic and operated by Health Care America. The highest standards were set so that people could be treated, with 200 beds at a cost of around USD80 million. Fast forward to 2018, we now have 1,500 beds and treat one in five cancer patients in the country and more than that in pediatric cancer. We are the leader in transplants and arguably the leader in pediatric transplants in the world between solid organs and bone marrow transplants. Matching the number to quality, we also rank high in survival rates and health outcomes. We are proud of our oncology, transplant, and cardiology services; in 2017 we reached 34 heart transplants, ranking KFSH&RC in the top 10% globally. For bone marrow, we are in the top 4% and have performed the first intestinal transplant in the region. When it comes to clinical results, we focus on tertiary care, especially in cancer, transplants, cardiology, genetics, and neurosciences. We have put our name on the map internationally.

What ambitions have you set for the hospital in the coming years?

RFAB I look forward to KFSH being a leader in this new transformed healthcare system, nationwide, regionwide, and worldwide. We are currently in a unique situation with the opportunity to transfer knowledge to the rest of the nation and region at large. I look forward to seeing the fruits of all of this work and the population benefiting from the new system. National and international partnerships have also been part of our mission. We have a national and international collaboration office that is extremely active. We have a number of collaborations with regional countries and governments. We also have a large executive administration for academic affairs and training as well as a number of accredited training programs for residencies and fellowships. We envision this administration being the one to take care of the entire cluster.

MIAF The focus is that the transformation is not a financial transformation; rather, it is about patient care. However, the financial aspect will change in terms of the method we want to use. By the end of the transformation, we want to improve access with less waiting time in the emergency room, fewer patients waiting to be admitted, and shorter lengths of stay with a better patient experience. We identified specific KPIs to understand what more patients going through the system would mean; patients accepted into the hospital should be seen within two weeks from the time they are referred to us and to be treated within one month. Transformation is an ongoing process, but we have a plan that by the end of 2022, we will look back at the past five years and hope to see our vision has become reality.