US body designates Women’s Wellness and Research Center as Center of Excellence

For successfully demonstrating high quality patient focused, safe, and effective care for pregnant women as well as excellence in education and research, the Obstetric Anesthesia Services at Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) Women’s Wellness and Research Center (WWRC) has been designated as a Center of Excellence (COE) by the Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology (SOAP) in the United States.
The WWRC is the first hospital in the Middle East to receive the prestigious designation recognizing institutions and programs that demonstrate excellent obstetric anesthesia care, HMC said in a press statement Sunday.

HMC’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Abdullah Al Ansari

The SOAP, with a mission to improve pregnancy-related outcomes of women and neonates, was founded in 1968 to provide a forum for discussion of problems unique to the peripartum period. SOAP is comprised of anesthesiologists, obstetricians, pediatricians, and basic scientists from around the world.
The designation of hospitals as centers of excellence by SOAP is an annual accreditation program, with new centers announced each spring. The WWRC’s Center of Excellence status will remain valid for four years with its application having met certain criteria covering firstly all aspects of obstetric anesthesia care including personnel and staffing; equipment, protocols, and policies; simulation and team training; obstetric emergency management; cesarean delivery and labor analgesia care; recommendations and guidelines implementation; and quality assurance and patient follow-up systems. Excellence in education and research is also included in the exhaustive list of criteria needed to fulfil the WWRC’s COE award by SOAP. Each metric is reviewed annually by the SOAP COE committee and updated as appropriate.
“The designation of WWRC as a Center of Excellence by the Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology shows our commitment to promote excellence, safe and effective care for each and every one of our patients including women who receive obstetric anesthesia care at WWRC,” stated HMC’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Abdulla Al Ansari.
He noted that many anesthesiologists across HMC, and notably at WWRC, play an essential role in the interdisciplinary care team and management of pregnant women. “As a leading healthcare provider offering tertiary level maternity care in Qatar and across the region, HMC prides itself in offering cutting edged personalized care to women from preconception to postnatal stage. We do this through a multidisciplinary team comprising anesthesiologists, obstetricians and other healthcare practitioners ensuring that pregnant women receive the best, the safest and the most compassionate care,” Dr. Al Ansari said.
With around 20,000 births per year, WWRC offers personalized family-centered care to all women and newborns in Qatar. Its scope of services ranges from prenatal to perinatal, including postnatal care and newborn care.
“At WWRC, we are continuously improving and upgrading our services to cater to the increasing needs of our patients across a broad range of specialties and sub-specialties,” said WWRC’s Acting Chief Executive Officer and Medical Director, Dr. Hilal Al Rifai. “We are very proud to have been designated as a Center of Excellence by the Society for Obstetrics Anesthesia and Perinatology. It further demonstrates our commitment to excellence in the care that we offer to women at the Women’s Wellness and Research Center.”
Dr. Fatima Khatoon, WWRC’s Consultant Anesthesiologist, who spearheaded the WWRC’s application for SOAP’s COE accreditation status said, “I am delighted that our application to the Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology was successful and that the WWRC has been designated as the society’s first Center of Excellence in the Middle East. This achievement is testament to our dedication to high quality, safe and effective care, which we will continue to provide to all our mothers in Qatar.”
She noted that the obstetric anesthesia team, under the clinical leadership of Dr. Santhosh Gopalakhrishnan, at the WWRC, not only provide high-quality clinical care, but also strive to deliver excellence in both education and research. The Obstetric Anaesthesia Fellowship program led by Dr. Mitko Kocarev and the clinical research guided by obstetric anesthesia research Lead, Dr. Roshan Fernando, underpins these additional aspects of caring for our pregnant patients.  
“We therefore truly value the continuing support and encouragement that HMC currently provides to the obstetric anesthesia team for each and every aspect of delivering patient centered care in the region. As a team we believe that much more can be achieved in the future, as knowledge and clinical care evolve looking after such an important part of Qatar’s diverse and dynamic population,” Dr. Khatoon added.