Image

National Heart Center

  1. Home
  2. National Centers & Departments
  3. National Heart Center
  • Icon
  • Icon
Image

A center of excellence for all cardiac conditions

The National Heart Centre is a leading cardiovascular centre in Oman. Over the years, we have established our reputation as one of the best heart care destinations in the Gulf region. We employ the most advanced techniques to treat heart diseases and use the best technology available to reach the most precise diagnosis, the most optimum medical care and the best clinical outcomes.

Here our consultants and specialists are able to provide the best comprehensive range of cardiac procedures, and surgeries including the most complex, and provide a high-quality specialized cardiac investigation using the latest imaging technology and highly advanced sophisticated cardiac diagnostic interventions.

National Heart Center department consist of.

Image
Down

Paediatric Cardiology Department
Image
Down

Department of Cardiac Anesthesia

Adult Cardiology Department

Adult Cardiology Department in national Heart center is providing one of the best cardiac services in the region for all Omani and non-Omani residents. Our services include management of all cardiac patients attending the Hospital (inpatients, outpatients). We ensure 24/7 patient care. As a tertiary hospital, we are accepting referral cases (from other sultanate hospitals and private clinics).

Outpatient cardiology services Clinics

  • General Cardiology clinic
  • Specialized Cardiology clinics include
  • Electrophysiology
  • Pacemaker
  • Heart Failure

In-patent cardiology service for admitting all acute cardiac cases to Coronary Care Unit (CCU) /Intermediate care ward (ICW) and General adult cardiology ward (ACW).

We perform major invasive cardiac procedures:

  • Coronary angiography
  • Coronary balloon angioplasty with stenting
  • Related coronary angiography imaging modalities and physiological assessment (FFR, IVUS, OCT )
  • Special Coronary procedures e.g. rotablation, IVL (Intravascular Lithotripsy)
  • Performing pacemaker implantation of all types single chamber, dual chamber, CRT-D.
  • Performing structural heart procedures (Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI), Balloon Mitral Angioplasty, Mitral valve clipping for Mitral Regurge and Left Atrial Appendage (LAA) Closure.
  • Cardiac catheterization for hemodynamic assessment of different cardiac diseases.

In-patent cardiology service for admitting all acute cardiac cases to Coronary Care Unit (CCU) /Intermediate care ward (ICW) and General adult cardiology ward (ACW).

We perform major invasive cardiac procedures:

  • Coronary angiography
  • Coronary balloon angioplasty with stenting
  • Related coronary angiography imaging modalities and physiological assessment (FFR, IVUS, OCT )
  • Special Coronary procedures e.g. rotablation, IVL (Intravascular Lithotripsy)
  • Performing pacemaker implantation of all types single chamber, dual chamber, CRT-D.
  • Performing structural heart procedures (Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI), Balloon Mitral Angioplasty, Mitral valve clipping for Mitral Regurge and Left Atrial Appendage (LAA) Closure.
  • Cardiac catheterization for hemodynamic assessment of different cardiac diseases.

Performing non-invasive procedures:

  • ECG, Exercise-ECG, 24 hour BP monitoring, Holter monitoring, pacemaker interrogation
  • Imaging procedures
  • Transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) (2-D, 3-D)
  • Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE)
  • Stress echocardiography (pharmacological and exercise)
  • Cardiac CT
  • Cardiac MRI
  • Nuclear service for cardiac patients

Over the years, we have established our reputation as one of the best heart care destinations in Gulf region. We employ the most advanced techniques to treat heart diseases and use the best technology available to reach the most precise diagnosis, the most optimum medical care and the best clinical outcomes.

Paediatric Cardiology Department

The Paediatric Cardiology is an important department at the National Heart Center. It serves children from the Whole Sultanate of Oman. It is taking care of children from day 1 till 12 year of age.

The units

1) Electrophysiology: Which is evaluating children with conduction problem like fast of low heart beats. A special team is taking care of children with this problem. There is a full equipped electrophysiology cathlab doing different procedures.

2) Fetal cardiology: If a fetus is suspected to have congenital heart disease; the mother referred to fetal cardiology clinic. A specialized team is evaluating the mother with Echocardiogram and other lab investigations if needed. The mother then after well have regular follow-ups till delivery of the baby.

3) General cardiology: is taking care of general cardio disease with follow up in the OPD.

4) Adult Congenital Cardiac Disease: is taking care with adult who have congenital cardiac diseases.

5) Nutritional department: is giving nutritional support for children with congenital heart disease.

The outpatient clinics

There are at least 5 specialized clinics:

  • General cardiology clinic
  • Fetal cardio clinic
  • Electrophysiology clinic
  • Adult congenital cardiac diseases
  • Heart failure clinic

Paediatric Cardiology Ward

Which take admission from all over the Sultanate through the emergency room, the OPDs, the transfer from other hospitals and booked admissions for cath and surgery.

A specialized team is taking care of children consisting of doctors, nurses, technicians, and other paramedical support.

Department of Cardiac Anesthesia

The department of anesthesia at the national heart center provides advanced care for the patients having cardiac surgery for both adults and children. The department also provides care for critically ill patients and for patients undergoing procedures outside the main operation theaters like Cath labs, CCU and ICU.

Another important service is postoperative pain management and making sure that patients as much comfortable as possible which speeds the recovery process. All heart surgeries and pediatric cath procedures are done under general anesthesia, where most of cath procedures for adults done under local anesthesia, the anesthetist is going to visit the patient before surgery to peruse the patient of the most important information that affect the anesthesia.

Image
Down

Cardiothoracic Surgical Unit
Image
Down

Perfusionist Unit
Image
Down

Pediatric Post Cardiac Surgery Unit

Cardiothoracic Surgical Unit

The cardiothoracic surgical unit at the Royal Hospital was established on the year 1990 with its first open heart surgery performed with a successful outcome on December of the same year. Since that date the unit progressed steadily, expanded its services and increased the operative sessions to cope with the rising numbers of referrals from adult and paediatric cardiology departments as well as referrals from thoracic medical unit.

This has further expanded years later when the new building of the National Heart Centre opened on May, 2015 with its greater facilities and spaces. The increase in number of operative sessions was accompanied with a similar steady increase in the quality of services as the unit acquired the necessary experience and confidence to perform more complex operations in both of its 2 sections.

At the beginning, the unit was consisting of 3 consultants, 3 registrars, medical officers and 2 perfusionists performing approximately 200-220 operations annually. That was perhaps good enough to cope with the demand at the time.

Over the next 30 years it has expanded to be currently comprising of the followings:

  • 4 consultants - adult surgeons.
  • 4 consultants - paediatric surgeons.
  • 4 Sr. Specialists
  • 6 specialists
  • 6 medical officers
  • 11 perfusionists

This expansion comes as a result of similar expansion in the cardiology and other medical teams and consequently there were a steady increase in numbers of patients referred for surgery. The statistics of the last 2 years show that the unit has performed nearly 1000 operations per year equally shared “ or near equal” among its 2 sections. The quality of work was kept at a high level of standard all through the years of existence and this can be recognized immediately at a glance to the outcome of surgery which is well matching with the recommended outcome by the international societies in this profession.

No doubt this excellent outcome is the result of hard work of all its members plus the collective help and assistance from many supportive departments particularly nursing, physiotherapy, administration and others. In addition, the department also performs different academic activities at regular intervals to keep its members updated with new knowledge and development elsewhere in this world. These activities are either held alone such as Journal Clubs, audit meetings or in combination with other departments such as the Grand round, Echo meeting and audit meetings with cardiology colleagues.

Certainly there is more potential for further expansion and production that this department can offer but unfortunately the challenges brought by the COVID pandemic and others had its negative impact on such progress. Nevertheless, the department at least could maintain the same level of functionality during this pandemic and hopefully when it is brought under control and other challenges are eliminated, the department can go back to its many plans that have been placed aiming at implementing them to achieve the goals behind those plans.

Perfusionist Unit

A Perfusionist or Clinical Perfusion Specialist, is a healthcare professional who operates the cardiopulmonary bypass machine (Heart–lung machine - HLM) during cardiac surgery and other surgeries that require cardiopulmonary bypass to manage the patient's physiological status. As a member of the cardiovascular surgical team, the perfusionist also known as the clinical Perfusionist helps maintain blood flow to the body's tissues as well as regulate levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the blood, using a heart lung machine.

Besides operating HLM, Perfusionist manages many Clinical activities such as, ECMO, LVADs, IABP, and Auto-transfusion in different surgical settings. In addition, there are some special procedures that performed by the Perfusionist including, Selective Cerebral perfusion, Deep Hypothermic Circulatory Arrest (DHCA), and Perfusion Chemotherapy. Perfusionist has to go through extensive Clinical and Theoretical Program to be legally certified.

Perfusion Team consists of 12 members. Eight are seniors who do all cases including the on call duties. Four are juniors who do all cases and on call duty under supervision. 75% of the team is Omanis and 25% are expatriates. We cover four cardiac operating theaters, Royal Hospital ECMO, and Royal Hospital Cell saver.

Perfusionists have more than 20 years experience and graduated from different perfusion schools. The multi-disciplinary members provide a strong base for the team to deliver a high standard care.

Pediatric Post Cardiac Surgery Unit

Pediatric Post Cardiac Surgery Unit is a 7 bedded unit in the Royal hospital, National Heart Center where we care for critically ill neonates, infants and children with congenital heart diseases. Our team includes pediatric intensivists, cardiothoracic surgeons, pediatric cardiologists, anesthetists, nurses, respiratory therapists, physiotherapists and bed manager. We also have other supporting medical specialties participating in providing the optimal support to our patients.

We admit around 300 patients per year post cardiac surgeries. We also admit some neonates for cardiac evaluation prior to cardiac intervention. Moreover; we admit high risk children post cardiac catheterization after the intervention and some of the critically sick cardiac medical patients.

Our team of pediatric intensivists provide around the-clock, 24/7 care for the children. We work closely with the surgeons, cardiologists, anesthesiologists, and experts from other medical and surgical areas to give the children the best care possible. The families are fully involved in the daily care and discussions regarding the care plan to ensure an outstanding experience and optimal long-term outcomes.

Features of our care in the unit include:

  • Round-the-clock physician coverage: We guarantee 24/7 in-house coverage physicians every day of the year, with at least two in house physicians at night.
  • All types of close and open congenital heart disease surgeries including Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA) Ligation, Coarctation Of Aorta (CoA) Repair, Pulmonary Artery (PA) Banding, Atrial Septal Defect (ASD) Repair, Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD) Closure, Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) repair, Atrio-Ventricular Septal Defect (AVSD) Repair, Blalock Taussig (BT) shunt, Glenn, Fontan and Norwood.
  • Latest life-support technology including Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO), pacing and peritoneal dialysis.
  • Advanced monitoring system. All beds have advanced monitoring screen displaying the child’s vital signs as well as the trends for the past 24 hours.
  • Advanced invasive and non-invasive ventilatory support including conventional and high frequency oscillation ventilation.
  • Promoting healthy neurodevelopment by using technology such as near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and ECMO to ensure that we are doing the best for the children.
  • Culture of safety. We regularly monitor our clinical outcomes and safety measures to identify areas for improvement. We work closely with quality and safety department in the hospital.
  • The unit emphasizes on family centered care during this stressful time. We keep families updated on regular basis and we involve them on the daily care. We encourage the parents to participate and ask questions about their children’s care.
Image
Down

Pharmaceutical care service in National Heart Centre
Image
Down

Cardiac catheterization department
Image
Down

Continues Professional Development Department (CPD)

Pharmaceutical care service in National Heart Centre

The pharmaceutical care service in NHC aims to create a positive healthcare environment by providing a pharmacy service that optimizing patient outcome through safety, high quality patient care, respect and effective communication.

The role of the NHC Pharmacy is to review the prescription, prepare the medications, and dispense the medications to the patients with the required information and counseling on how to take these medications:

1- Receiving the prescription:

  • The pharmacy staff will receive the Rx, and confirm the patient triple name, family name and the hospital file number.
  • Then the pharmacist will review the Rx and ensure the appropriateness and completeness of the Rx.

2- Preparing prescription and dispensing medications:

  • Pharmacy staff will prepare the prescription according to the required doses and quantities. Also the instructions will be written on the medicine envelop.
  • Then pharmacist will call the patient; dispense the medications, with clear explanation on how to take the required doses for best therapeutic outcomes.

Pharmacy Counseling: The aim of patient counseling and education prior discharge is to improve patient compliance to therapy regimen and to provide safe medication management to the patients.

Waiting Time: Waiting time for receiving medications differs from patient to patient according to the complexity of the prescription. If the medicine is not available in the pharmacy, the pharmacist needs to contact medical store therefore the waiting time will be more.
Waiting period range from 25 to 30 minutes

WhatsApp Service for future prescriptions: The NHC pharmacy has introduced WhatsApp Service for future prescription sin July 2019. The aim of this service is to reduce waiting time for the patients and decrease unnecessary accumulation of patients in pharmacy area. This service helped pharmacy staff to work with piece of mind in healthy environment thus minimizing noise and distraction.

Extemporaneous preparation Service: An extemporaneous preparation is a drug specially prepped by a pharmacist because an appropriate drug is not readily available. The NHC pharmacy decided to open this Service due to many of medication not available in syrup dosage form for pediatrics.

The service started on October 2019. Previously these medications were prepared in the main pharmacy, due to the increase in our consumption a decision was made to prepare all these medication in NHC pharmacy.

The aim of this service is to reduce the burden on the main pharmacy's preparation area and to fulfill our needs.

Cardiac catheterization department

Cardiac catheterization department is a department in which many cardiovascular diseases are diagnosed and treated by inserting a small tube (catheter) through the arteries or veins to reach the area to be examined or treated.

The cardiac catheterization department at the National Heart Center in the Sultanate of Oman consists of five catheterization rooms in addition to a hybrid room (used for catheterization and operations).

And the working team consists of:

  • Adult Cardiac consultants and specialists
  • Pediatric cardiac consultants and specialists
  • Consultant Electrophysiologist and specialists
  • Consultant Anaesthetists and specialists
  • Cardiac technologists
  • Cardiac nurses
  • Medical orderlies
  • Cleaners

The department performs approximately 6 thousand procedures annually. In which the latest international technologies are used to treat intractable and complex cases. The complication rate is approximately 1% compared to the global accepted rate of 5%, which reflects the progress and paradigm shift witnessed by the department. The department also works around the clock, all days of the year, to quickly treat emergency and critical cases.

The department performs various types of operations, briefly including:

  • Examination and treatment of coronary arteries
  • Treatment of various valves by Catheterization
  • Examination and treatment of most congenital defects, including sealing defective openings
  • Examination and treatment of the Electrophysiological issues by means of radiofrequency or cryotherapy, and using advanced tools and devices such as a 3D drawing of the heart
  • Inspection, implantation, or removal of all types of heart rhythm monitoring devices
  • Check the effectiveness and efficiency of the heart

Continues Professional Development Department (CPD)

Continues professional development department (CPD) is an integral part of functioning the National Heart Centre (NHC), Oman. Its role is to strategically plan and provide medical professionals with medical training and education; via conducting courses, training, hands-on and bedside sessions. Also, it oversees and reports on all educational activities in the hospital. The Department conducts 1-2 grand round sessions in monthly bases.

The Simulation Lab is one of the main pillars in the CPD Department. The Simulation Lab conducts all American Heart Association life support courses and other simulation sessions that enhances health care workers clinical skills.

National Heart Center major achivements

2019

Icon

- IHF godlen award for best project for Catheterization laboratory inventrory managment.

2018

Icon

- Third country in the world to do Sinus Venosus ASD closure percutaneously.

- Leadless Pacemaker implantation

2016

Icon

- Live transmission of cases in international conferences. More than 700 open heart surgery per year.

- Percutaneous implantation of aortic, pulmonary and tricuspid valve.

- More than 6000 cardiac catheterization per year

- 3D mapping for Electro physiology procedures and Zero flurscopy technique

2015 - 2019

Icon

- Three fold increase in Electrophysilogy procedures from 2015 to 2019

- More than 50% increase in cardiac catheterizaiton from 2015 to 2019

- More than 30% increase in congenital cardiac catheterizaiton from 2015 to 2019

Up