Nearly 17,000 Babies Born at WWRC in the First Year of Full Operations
Doha, 19 June, 2019: This week Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) Women’s Wellness and Research Center (WWRC) is celebrating the one-year anniversary of transitioning services from Women’s Hospital to the new purpose-built facility. During a special event held at WWRC, senior leaders and staff gathered to discuss how women’s and infant care in the country have benefited from the opening of the new state-of-the-art hospital.
The celebratory event also acknowledged the successful reaccreditation of WWRC by the Joint Commission International (JCI) – the US-based accreditation body that recognizes healthcare organizations that demonstrate a commitment to providing the highest standard of patient care.
“We are happy to be having a double celebration – commemorating both the one-year anniversary of the successful transition of our care services for women and babies from the Women’s Hospital to the WWRC and our reaccreditation by the Joint Commission International. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to celebrate all of our staff. It is through their collective efforts that we have achieved so many important milestones during the past year. It is their dedication and teamwork that has made both the move to our new hospital and the JCI reaccreditation possible,” said Dr. Hilal Al Rifai, Medical Director, WWRC.
In 2017, HMC began a phased opening of WWRC, carefully transitioning services from the Women’s Hospital to the new facility. Starting with the opening of the outpatient Urogynecology Clinic in late 2017, various clinical and surgical services were transitioned to the new hospital with the full shift in services culminating with the delicate process of safely transporting over 100 babies from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Women’s Hospital to the new WWRC NICU in May 2018.
“In the last year, we have welcomed nearly 17,000 new babies into the world at WWRC and have recorded hundreds of thousands of patient visits at our outpatient and emergency departments. We also celebrated a number of firsts, including members of our staff assisting with the successful separation of conjoined twins born at our hospital. In the last year, over 20 new clinics and services have been introduced at WWRC – all aimed at boosting the quality of care we provide to patients. Additionally, over 160 new staff joined our team of more than 2,000 highly trained clinicians,” added Dr. Al Rifai.
Professor Adam Cairns, Chief Executive Officer, Medical City Hospitals and Al Wakra Hospital called the one-year anniversary an important milestone in HMC’s journey towards providing women in Qatar with safe and compassionate care.
“Being the main provider of secondary and tertiary healthcare in Qatar and one of the leading hospital providers in the Middle East, we are proud of our achievement of safely moving all of our services from the Women’s Hospital to the purpose-built WWRC. Our staff utilized their high-quality skills to ensure patients were not adversely impacted during the move,” noted Professor Cairns.
At 72,000 square meters, WWRC is the largest women’s tertiary hospital in Qatar and in the region. WWRC is also home to the region’s largest Neonatal Intensive Care Unit which extends across two floors and is able to care for over 100 high-risk or critically ill newborns. WWRC has 240 private inpatient rooms, seven operating theaters, and 26 delivery rooms.
