Doha, Qatar: Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) Heart Hospital makes history as the world’s first tertiary cardiology hospital to earn Planetree Silver Certification for Excellence in Person-Centered Care. This certification recognizes Heart Hospital’s achievement and innovation in the delivery of person-centered care.
Heart Hospital is the only tertiary cardiac center in the State of Qatar offering comprehensive cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery care. The hospital provides a unique range of specialist services including interventional cardiology, cardiothoracic surgery, non-invasive cardiology, advanced heart failure management, cardiac intensive care, emergency cardiac care, cardiac ambulatory care, cardiac rehabilitation and cardiac electrophysiology.
The hospital has a capacity of 116 inpatient beds including a state-of-the-art 20 bedded coronary care unit, an equally impressive 12-bedded cardiothoracic intensive care unit (ICU), a 24-bedded surgical high-dependency unit (HDU), and 60 cardiology high-dependency beds. Most notably, the hospital recently achieved a national milestone when its Cardiothoracic Surgery Department successfully performed the first heart transplant surgery in the State of Qatar.
The Silver Certification of Heart Hospital marks an important milestone in the organization’s culture change journey toward person-centered care. It reflects the integration of evidence- based policies, practices, tools, and systems that support the needs, values, and preferences of patients, families, communities, and healthcare professionals.
The certification criteria focus on the core components of a person-centered healthcare experience, including compassionate patient–provider relationships, transparent access to information, family and caregiver involvement, and a healing physical environment. The criteria also recognize how the organization supports and engages its workforce, creates opportunities for patients, families, and staff to partner in shaping care delivery, and extends its commitment to caring beyond its walls to positively impact the community served by Heart Hospital.
As part of the Planetree Certification process—which included an on-site assessment—conversations with patients, families, and staff affirmed that person-centered principles are embedded in daily practice. The review also examined Heart Hospital’s performance on patient experience and quality measures, demonstrating how the intentional measurement and use of these insights drive continuous learning, improvement, and sustainable outcomes.
The Planetree Certification is the only award that recognizes excellence in person-centeredness across the continuum of care, the experience of Heart Hospital shows what can be accomplished when a team of deeply committed, supremely innovative and highly driven caregivers take the courageous leap to re-define priorities and re-organize systems to put patients first.
This achievement underscores HMC’s strategic commitment to embedding person-centered care across the continuum of services. Heart Hospital’s Silver Certification reflects HMC’s system-wide culture-change journey, demonstrating how shared leadership, governance, and organizational alignment translate person-centered principles into everyday practice and measurable outcomes across its facilities.
