The King Abdulaziz Cardiac Center (KACC) is located within the King Abdulaziz medical City (KAMC) complex in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. KACC has emerged as a rapidly expanding successful cardiac program committed to patient focused care, serving 4 million inhabitants as well as referral from other cities. KACC participates in training medical students in medical university campus (King Saud bin Adulaziz for Health Sciences).

KACC started operations in 1999 and moved to its present dedicated center in 2002. The center provides a complete range of services including Adult Cardiology, Pediatric Cardiology, Cardiac Surgery and Cardiac Anesthesia.

In 2002, the center opened with 60 in-patient beds, 3 catheterization laboratories and 3 operating rooms. All beds are in private single rooms with windows open to natural sunlight. There are dedicated independent Intensive Care Units including adult cardiac surgical, pediatric cardiac surgical, medical cardiac and coronary care.

As the center built a local and international reputation the volume rapidly expanded resulting in full utilization of all available in and outpatient resources. With this success the need to expand the service became an urgent priority. A major expansion was approved in 2005 to double the beds and provide dedicated clinics.

To immediately address the lack of beds an additional 15 telemetry beds were added in an adjacent building. This unit will be utilized for the care of congestive heart failure patients when the new center opens. This unit will have a dedicated team of physicians and nurse specialists who will coordinate CHF clinic and in-patient care to insure optimal management of this, the most expensive of cardiac diseases. This unit will be a model for CHF disease management for the region.

When the expansion fully opens, more than 150 beds will be available 60 of which will be critical care. The facility currently operates 4 Catheterization Laboratories, 4 Operating Rooms (OR’s). A fifth OR in the existing theatres area will open in 2010. The new east wing has three 3,400m2 floors (10,000+ m2) that will include 75 telemetry beds and an enhanced outpatient facility including a Life-Style Modification Program.

A Heart Transplantation Program is planned to be included as part of the enhanced CHF program. Currently, KACC has an advanced Nurse-Based Physician-supervised CHF and Atherosclerosis clinic. This comprehensive, multi-disciplinary program is unique to this region and has enrolled more than 1000 patients. A large research room, monitored recovery room, and a Life-Style Modification Program are part of the enhancements for this program.

Construction of a dedicated advanced cardiac imaging building will commence following opening of the expansion. This purpose designed building will accommodate high tech equipment including a Cardiac PET/ CT Scanner, MRI, Nuclear Gamma Cameras, Image Fusion Technology, and a Niobe Robotic EP/Intervention Cath Lab System. This facility will be the most advanced, integrated cardiac imaging facility in the region. In 2006, the center introduced pediatric and adult cardiac MRI and 64 slice CT scan examinations. Two Cardiac MRI/CT qualified consultant specialists supervise these procedures. One was trained at Toronto General Hospital and the other at Mayo Clinic. We have up-to-date echo machines including 10 3D Philips IE33 systems which are connected to an advanced cardiac imaging storage system (PACS) system (Xcelera).

The cardiac center has implemented a comprehensive data driven reporting system that will soon automatically send information from cardiac systems to the Misys electronic medical record. In addition, this system will help with quality improvement and research.

An ICU chartless system-Carevue is now implemented in CCU and Medical Cardiac ICU beds. This system is being expanded to other cardiac and hospital ICU areas. The main hospital (KAMC) introduced a full radiology PACS system which is also a great success. The cardiac service was originally a consultant based service in the1990’s with no junior staff. Due to the major increases in the workload and advances in the hospital, assistant consultant posts were generated. All assistant consultants are highly qualified and experienced.

There is a hand-over meeting every morning where the cases of the previous evening are discussed by the cardiac team. Education and research is a priority with ongoing programs and new initiatives reflecting the interests of the growing staff. The center produces many publications annually and there are ample opportunities for staff to participate in studies. A new separate major research building for Medical City has been approved this year and will house the cardiac research programs. KACC is supervised and run by Cardiac Executive Board. The board has representatives from all the cardiac subspecialties.

The Cardiac Center was selected to organize the most recent Saudi Heart Conference. This event was a great success and included very successful live transmission of cardiac interventions from the National Guard Hospital and from France.

 Staff:

Chairman: Dr.Muayed Al Zaibag
Deputy Chairman: Dr.Hani Najim

• Adult Cardiology:
• Dr. Mohammed Balgaith
• Dr. Mohammed Garamallah  Al Ghamdi
• Dr. , Abdulmohsen Al Musaad
• Dr. Ali Mohammed Al Ghamdi
• Dr. Ahmed Abdullah Al Saileek
• Dr Kamal Ayoub
• Dr. Ahmed  Al Omran
• Dr. Zarrar  Malik
• Dr. Mohammad Bdeir
  
  
• Cardiac Surgery:
• Dr. Abdulaziz Al Khaldi
• Dr. Ahmed Abdalla  Elarefi
  
  
• Pediatric Cardiology:
• Dr. Omar Al Tamimi
• Dr. Omar Mohammad Hijazi
• Dr. Riyadh Abu Sulaiman
• Dr. Mansour Bader Mutlaq  Al Mutairi
• Dr. Mohamad Kabbani
• Dr. Mahmoud El Barbary
• Dr. Fahad Al Habshan

Contact us:
Phone Number: +966 - 1 - 252 0088 ext: 16741