JEDDAH, 18 July 2004 — A delegation from Jeddah’s International Medical Clinic (IMC) completed an official four-day visit last week to the Cleveland Clinic Foundation (CCF) in Cleveland, Ohio. The objective of the visit was to establish professional contact between IMC and CCF counterparts and to activate the previously existing partnership outlined between the two entities.

The Jeddah-based IMC is a 300-bed specialty hospital currently under construction and is expected to open in mid-2005. The CCF was ranked fourth as one of America’s best hospitals by US News & World Report in 2003 and its Heart Center ranked first for the ninth consecutive year.

The CCF competes for the title of “one of the best hospitals in the world” in almost every specialty in surgery and medicine. The CCF is the official affiliate of the IMC and an equity holder with its CEO a member of the IMC’s board of directors, a first in Kingdom’s history.

The visit also is the first in what will be regular coordinated meetings, with both IMC management visiting the CCF, and CCF executives visiting the IMC.

The IMC delegation included Dr. Wael Kaawach, MD, chairman of the department of surgery, consultant for orthopedic surgery, and a member of the board of directors, as well as Ghada Al-Barakati, consultant for quality and organizational management, Majdah Shugdar, director of quality and patient safety, and Patricia Wood, assistant director of nursing.

The IMC team met daily for meetings with top management of several departments at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, as well as with Dr. Floyd Loop, CEO, and Dr. Delos M. Cosgrove, MD, chairman of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery who will take over as CCF’s new CEO in October.

Dr. Loop and Dr. Cosgrove visited the IMC in Jeddah early this year. Dr. Loop attended an official IMC board of directors meeting on Feb. 24 and delivered a lecture at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Feb. 25 entitled, “World Class Service and Transfer of Knowledge in Health Care.”

Meetings were held with various departments of the CCF, including nursing, operations, information technology, quality assurance, marketing and public relations. A principal outcome of the visit was an agreement for an international affiliate program in which clinicians who are credentialed at the IMC and meet predetermined CCF credentialing and privileging criteria would be given “affiliate” status.

The IMC team was also invited to the official opening ceremony of the Cleveland Medical School at which the American director of the National Institute of Health (NIH) was the main speaker. This medical school will be graduating medical researchers and is considered the first of its kind in the United States.

“This official visit establishes a continual exchange of knowledge, services, and true partnership between the IMC and CCF and I am very pleased with the successful outcome of the visit,” said Dr. Walid Fitaihi, CEO and chairman of the board of directors of the IMC. He felt that the partnership between the IMC and CCF is an unparalleled achievement in the health care industry in the Middle East and would have a major impact on the availability of world-class medical service for the Saudi market in particular and the Middle East market in general.