PRESS RELEASE – Health City Cayman Islands, the renowned Caribbean hospital, has treated more than 29,000 patients since it opened its doors three years ago.
As Health City celebrates its third anniversary this month, officials at the Joint Commission International-accredited (JCI) facility are recommitting to its pledge of high quality, affordable healthcare for all, and preparing for a long future of outstanding medical provision.
“As we continue on this journey, we’ve seen many more milestones achieved, not least more international patients coming to Health City for treatment,” says Dr. Chandy Abraham, Health City’s CEO and Medical Director, pointing to a 55 percent year-on-year surge in international patients in the first two months of this year.
“Our positive patient experiences demonstrate our dedication to the highest possible standard of compassionate care,” he adds, invoking the hospital’s 1,900-plus procedures since opening in 2014, including more than 640 orthopedic surgeries, and over 280 cardiac surgeries, with overall infection and readmission rates of less than one percent.
Health City’s medical teams, who treated patients from 60 countries just in 2016, champion innovation and have scored some notable firsts in the region. Health City became the first hospital in the English-speaking Caribbean to use robotic navigation for joint replacements and the first to install two artificial hearts or left ventricle assist devices (LVADs).
Other Caribbean firsts include performing transcatheter aortic valve replacements (TAVR) or implantations (TAVI); minimally invasive clot extraction for strokes, which dramatically improves post-stroke outcomes; and renal denervation, a minimally invasive procedure using radiofrequency ablation to treat resistant hypertension.
“I am amazingly pleased with my care. I am a vascular surgeon and my care was as good, if not better, than anything I have seen. The model here is what the U.S. healthcare system is striving to,” said an emergency cardiac patient at Health City, Dr. Leon Josephs from Massachusetts.
“A big reason we came here was because it was 10 times more affordable than the States. They made everything much easier and more human,” said Álvaro Jiménez, from Guatemala, after the hospital saved his three-month old son.
“We are very, very lucky to have a modern facility like this on a small island,” said the owner and CEO of the Tortuga Rum Company Ltd., Robert Hamaty, who received pulmonology care at Health City.
“Over the past year we’ve been rapidly increasing how many specialties we offer, and so we’ve also seen a big increase in the number of patients coming to us,” Dr. Abraham said, adding that Health City’s future goals include expanding accommodation at the East End campus, increasing its range of medical services and getting young Caymanians interested in science.
About Health City Cayman Islands
Health City Cayman Islands, the vision of renowned heart surgeon and humanitarian Dr. Devi Shetty, is supported by two major healthcare organizations, Narayana Health and the U.S.-based Ascension, which is America’s largest faith-based and nonprofit health system, providing the highest quality care to all, with special attention to those who are poor and vulnerable.
Health City, only the second hospital in the Caribbean to receive the Joint Commission International’s “hospital accreditation”, provides compassionate, high-quality, affordable healthcare services in a world-class, comfortable, patient-centered environment. Offering healthcare to local, regional and international patients, Health City Cayman Islands delivers excellence in adult and pediatric cardiology, cardiac surgery, cardiac electrophysiology, medical oncology, orthopedics, sports medicine, pediatric endocrinology, gastrointestinal and bariatric surgery, neurology, interventional neurology and neuro-diagnostics, neurosurgery, minimally invasive spine surgery, gynecology, dental, sleep lab and pulmonology services.
IMAGE: front-hospital