Some of the teams receive awards from HMC managing director Hanan al-Kuwari.

Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) awarded top honours to eight winning projects at the annual Stars of Excellence staff award ceremony at Katara last week. The Stars of Excellence Programme has been running for six years and, over 1,500 projects have been submitted during this period.
This year, the winning projects were selected from a total of 272 submissions and each year, winners are chosen based on their performance against key criteria such as the application of international best practices, evidence of direct improvements resulting from the project, and how the project has impacted patient care and the overall patient experience.  
Hanan al-Kuwari, managing director of HMC, said the awards ceremony is an important platform to recognise and reward the hard work of all HMC staff.
“Every year I am delighted by the standard and quality of submissions we receive to Stars of Excellence and I believe this is very much reflected in the excellent work being done at Hamad. It is important to acknowledge and reward teamwork in organisations, as successful partnerships are crucial to an organisation’s success. I am consistently impressed by the commitment shown by the staff in raising the standards of healthcare in Qatar so that our population receives the safest, most effective and most compassionate care.”
Nasser al-Naimi, deputy chief quality officer for HMC and co-director for Hamad Healthcare Quality Institute said that all the submissions were categorised within HMC’s three pillars of: health, education and research and focused on areas including quality, safety, innovations and improving patient experience.
“The quality of submissions was extremely high and came from all areas of the organisation. The winning projects demonstrate the extremely high quality of work that takes place at HMC for the benefit of our patients. An example of such work is the ‘Golden Hour’ Delivery Room Management project, which received the Managing Director’s Special Award.”
Other winning projects from the event included  National Tumor Board and Cancer Guidelines (Clinical Practice); Powerchart Oncology Implementation at National Centre for Cancer Care and Research (Collaborative Achievement); Neonatal Transport Programme (Operational Performance Award); Supportive and Palliative Care Unit(Patient Experience Award); Performance of Paediatric Code Blue Team in Hamad General Hospital Paediatrics (Quality and Patient Safety Award);  Innovating the Clinical Information System Training Experience of Nurses  (Education Award) and Association of Time in Blood Glucose Range with Outcome after Cardiac Surgery (Research Award)
All 272 submissions to the Stars of Excellence Programme represent teams from across HMC committing time and effort to continuous improvement.

HMC’s Bone and Joint Centre to host 2 international surgeons
Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) Bone and Joint Centre will host two international surgeons from France and the UK in November and December. During their stay and as done during their previous visits to HMC, both surgeons will perform surgeries, attend to patients and diagnose relevant cases.
Dr Marius Scarlat, a consultant shoulder and elbow surgeon from France will visit HMC from 25 November to 1 December. He will attend to patients already pre-booked at the Bone and Joint Centre’s outpatient clinic on 25 and 29 November. During the other days of his visit, he will be dedicated to surgical operations.
Dr Duncan Whitwell, a consultant knee and reconstructive surgeon from the UK, will be visiting from 18 to 23 December. He will attend to pre-booked patients on 20 and 21 December and conduct surgical operations during the rest of his visit.
The Bone and Joint Centre would like to urge all patients who have been seen previously by either Dr Scarlat or Dr Whitwell to confirm their follow-up appointments to ensure that all tests, investigations, or scans required have been made ahead of their appointments.
Patients can confirm their appointments by contacting the Bone and Joint Centre during working hours. Other patients wishing to see either of these consultant surgeons can contact the centre on 40411150, 40411151 or 40411152 to book an appointment.
Patients are advised to note that Dr Scarlat will only see those patients with shoulder or elbow problems while Dr Whitwell will only be able to see patients with knee or pelvis problems.