Vivian Pellas has established cooperation agreements with institutions in the United States and Central America with the purpose of increasing their staff's medical knowledge. Some of these institutions are the Baptist Health Systems and Jackson Memorial Hospital (both in Miami, Fla.), as well as St. Luke's Episcopal hospital (Houston, Texas).
Exchange programs with other medical centers in Central America and the Dominican Republic are held through Asociacion de Hospitales Privados' (private hospitals association) connections, these programs have brought benefits in nursing practices.
Health professionals go through constant training to be prepared for the necessary endeavors demanded by the opening of new service units. In order to accomplish medical excellence, the staff undergoes training abroad in the fields of new diagnostic areas, acquiring scientific knowledge regarding these and other subjects. To set some examples, the medical staff heads to Miami and Mexico to receive training by experienced doctors for the proper reading of images produced by a 128-slice tomography; and also to take courses updating them in specialties such as cardiology and neuroscience.
"We are constantly raising our entire staff's knowledge level for advanced technology operation, providing the most exact evaluations to our patients," says Abdalah.
Hospital innovation
There are three important projects under development among the planned excellence centers:
1. The opening of a diabetes clinic in a new five-story facility under construction, including a multidisciplinary care unit.
2. Upgrades and innovations in the cardiology unit, which will include catheterization for pacemaker implantation, and cardiac electrophysiology, afterwards.
3. The opening of the neuroscience unit. This department is currently formed by a multidisciplinary team, properly trained to manage CVA with the most advanced technology, prehospital, and rehab services.
Under this extension, the hemodyalisis units will expand, and the available seats for patients with terminal kidney disease will increase to 30. Outpatient surgery services will increase as well, with the construction of two new operating rooms.
Medical technology
Vivian Pellas hospital owns the country's fastest MRI scanner, which has constant upgrades including updated training for the medical staff in charge of the device's operation, particularly for those in the neuroscience unit.
Currently, the Stem Cell Therapy area is also part of the ongoing extension, working along with local colleges whose research protocols are based on stem cells obtained from abdominal fat for tissue regeneration. Stem cell therapy at Vivian Pellas is used mainly for osteoarthritis treatment, to be applied to burn victims, for patients suffering peripheral circulatory collapse, for development of kidney tissue, and for inflammatory diseases such as asthma.
"We want to thrive into a regional reference for medical centers, with the support of what we've already achieved, along with the stem cell therapy clinic, taking ourselves into a level which will allow us to provide medical services to a larger population," says Abdalah.
Growth and expansion
Business development plans consist of doubling the hospital's capacity in its actual location. The diagnosis and outpatient surgery branches program will be running by 2015, mainly focused on patients suffering from diabetes. Branches will be located in different areas in the country. North and southeast Nicaragua are being evaluated as possible locations for this expansion.
The future for Hospital Metropolitano Vivian Pellas
The goal is to become Central America's best hospital by 2017. For this purpose, a strategic plan has been developed to make Vivian Pellas the region's top reference for medical centers with the highest standards, also to sustain leadership as the country's best nursing facilities, to increase brand presence in other markets; and to hire radiotherapy, transplant and molecular biology services, due to the high rate of patients with terminal illnesses.
“At Hospital Metropolitano Vivian Pellas we want to change the way medical services are provided in the country. That's the reason to install multidisciplinary practice among the medical community," says Abdalah.
Related articles: Editorial of Hospital Vivian Pellas in Spanish