Tourism & Hospitality | Sunday 3 June, 2018 6:42 am |

King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center (KFSHRC) and Houston Methodist Hospital have renewed an existing Memorandum of Understanding for the fourth consecutive time as a result of the positive impact their cooperation has made on the Saudi Arabian healthcare industry since 2009.

With a three-year agreement in place, KFSHRC and Houston Methodist will focus on implementing new frameworks to support the development of the professional healthcare community and to improve patients’ lives.

The agreement, signed by Dr. Majid Al-Fayyadh, CEO of the General Organization of King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, and Cathy Easter, CEO of Houston Methodist Global Health Care Services, will see the two institutions evaluate the feasibility and opportunity for benchmarking across a number of key areas related to quality and patient safety such as clinical pathways (tools used to guide evidence-based healthcare), mortality rates, clinical indicators, and patient satisfaction.

The three-year MOU will explore the advancement of projects including providing staff with clinical and leadership training programs in Houston. It will also provide KFSHRC’s physicians with access to world-class experts at Houston who will offer second opinions for patient diagnoses as part of the hospital's Second Opinion program.

Al-Fayyadh said: “The executive administration of KFSHRC regard the MOU as an excellent opportunity to improve our services, particularly at a time when our organization is undergoing major transformations in the near future. We trust that our partner organization in this MOU aims to set a global standard of excellence in patient-centered care, education, training and clinical collaboration, and we believe it to be fruitful for both of us to share our knowledge in order to attain our objectives.”

Noting the importance of the long-term partnership, Easter said: “We are grateful to all those who have contributed to the long-term success between our organizations as we embark on a new chapter for the healthcare industry in the Kingdom. We look forward to our continued collaboration with KFSHRC and building on the ongoing results of our efforts in the local medical sector as we work toward improving the exchanges between our healthcare organizations, physicians, nurses, administrators, patients and more.”

Al-Fayyadh and Easter discussed the future of their affiliation and several ways to further progress the local healthcare sector through this collaboration.