First Accredited Center of Excellence for Cardiac Surgical Unit – Advanced Life Support (CSU-ALS).
The Cardiac Surgical Unit – Advanced Life Support (CSU-ALS) United Kingdom has accredited Life Support Training Center (LSTC), Deanship of Postgraduate Education (DPEJ) at King Saud bin Abdul Aziz University for Health Sciences-Jeddah (KSAU-HS-J), as a Center of Excellence for Cardiac Surgical Unit – Advanced Life Support (CSU-ALS) on January 19, 2019.
The inaugural training started with CSU-ALS Provider Course as a phase one. Thirty three candidates attended the course (cardiothoracic surgeons, surgery residents, CSICU nurses); the majority was from King Faisal Cardiac Center (KFCC), Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs (MNGHA). In addition to other candidates from different health organizations as King Fahd Armed Forces Hospital, King Faisal Specialist Hospital Jeddah, KAMC Makkah al Mokaramah, and Hail Cardiac Center. The Associate Dean of DPEJ, Dr Yaser Faden directed the opening ceremony in the presence of Dr. Mansour Qurashi, Dean, College of Medicine, Dr. Jameel AlAta, Chairman of KFCC and Dr. Jamilah AlRahimi, Deputy Chair KFCC and Director of Postgraduate Medical Education.
Phase two was for training the trainers (CSU-ALS Instructor Course), fourteen candidates attended. Both phases were conducted by two senior International faculty members from The Cardiac Surgical Unit – Advanced Life Support (CSU-ALS) United Kingdom, Dr. S. Qadri and Dr.M. Chaudary, Consultant Cardiothoracic surgeon, in collaboration with Dr. Ali Haneef the Course Director, Associate Consultant Cardiac Surgeon, KFCC and Dr. K. Rashed, In Charge LSTC, KSAU-HS-J.
Ministry Of National Guard Health Affairs has an established unit of Cardiac Surgery for the last 5 years (Adult & Pediatric) at KFCC. An approximate of 40 members including doctors, nurses, perfusionists and technicians are involved in the care of cardiac surgical patients.
The LSTC at KSAU-HS-J has become the regional center for providing the course at provider and instructor levels, in collaboration with the CSU-ALS-UK. The objective is to train all personnel who are directly involved in cardiac surgical care with protocols to help reduce both mortality and morbidity for better outcomes. This course is highly recommended as is being practiced in almost all cardiac centers in Europe, UK and North America.
