Al-Jahra Hospital
As the quality of ICU care was moved toward semi-closed ICU, new doctors were recruited along with equipping & empowering the team to be experienced in ICU. Subsequently, a multi-disciplinary team was initiated to run the ICU service, which includes a respiratory therapist, physiotherapist, clinical dietician, clinical pharmacist, and infection control nurse.
During the COVID pandemic, the ICU capacity was expanded gradually up to 60 beds to accommodate the patients who require advanced ICU care.
In order to facilitate high-quality ICU care delivery, a closed ICU system was necessary, and was initiated under the guidance of Dr. Mohammed Shamash- Head of ICU, and the leadership of Dr. Omar M. Bamasood, Head of anesthesia and ICU department by Oct 2020. ECMO was introduced during the COVID pandemic, and AlJahra was recognized as the ELSO center in 2020.
By July 2021, the new Al-Jahra hospital started to provide services to Al-Jahra region population. Currently, it is equipped with 48 fully functioning ICU beds, with the facility to expand up to 84 beds when needed. The unit provides closed-system multi-disciplinary ICU care for all adult medical, surgical, obstertric and trauma patients.
In addition, the ICU team is trained to provide advanced respiratory and cardiac support including advanced mechanical support (ECMO and IABP) guided by point-of-care Echocardiography and Ultrasound.
In academic and research activities, AlJahra ICU published their experience with the use of Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation in Pregnant Women With COVID-19 in the journal of the American Society for Artificial Internal Organs (ASAIO) in April 2022.
Jahra ICU team aims to progress in ensuring continuous education of doctors, improving the clinical skills & knowledge in various aspects of critical care which highly impacts in delivering consistent high quality critical care.