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Offering compassionate and quality healthcare: Why Danat Al Emarat Hospital for Women & Children is the best choice for your child
PARTNER CONTENT: As parents continue to look for the best for their children, access to quality healthcare arguably tops the list. In Abu Dhabi, such remains synonymous with Danat Al Emarat Hospital for Women & Children, renowned for its comprehensive pediatric services and compassionate approach.
As Jemma Tarr, Senior Director of Clinical Operations at Danat Al Emarat Hospital for Women & Children shares, the hospital prides itself on being able to provide a holistic range of healthcare for children.
“One of the things we’re trying to focus on, especially in pediatrics, is that children are unique with their individual needs and are constantly changing as they grow,” she says.
“They require extra time, intensive monitoring, specialised medication and specialised teams with extensive skill sets. At Danat Al Emarat through the last year, we have been building an extensive team of specialised pediatric sub-specialities.”
The hospital prides itself on offering a wide range of specialised services tailored to meet the unique needs of pediatric patients. From high-risk obstetrics to complex surgeries, the hospital boasts expertise across various sub-specialties including pulmonology, urology, endocrinology, orthopaedics, and much more. A stellar testament to their dedication is hosting the largest neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in the private sector of Abu Dhabi staffed by Level 3 specialists.
Alongside is a similarly equipped pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), ensuring that even the most delicate patients receive the highest standard of care. However, Jemma explains how curating the best team to look after children goes well beyond finding the traditional skillset to focus on empathy.
“Our world-class doctors come with a diverse background of exceptional training which has allowed us to disseminate the latest evidence-based care in everything we deliver. Children’s hospitals are unique in the fact that there are a lot of healthcare professionals involved in the clinical care plan such as nurses, allied health professionals, play therapists, etc.
They must be experts in their fields, but they must also be patient, kind, compassionate, and empathic. And the main thing about the Pediatrics Department here is its family-centred approach. As a mother myself, you know that when your children are ill, you probably need more reassurance in the child. So we work on involving the parents in the care from start to finish.”
To better understand the holistic family-centred approach, one only needs to take a look at the massive range of departments at Danat Al Emarat. Encompassing everything from physical to mental and emotional needs, the hospital can detect and provide key services at critical times to ensure better success with the patients.
When it comes to developmental delays, Jemma explains, “We have a full team of rehabilitation experts who can initiate rehabilitation much more quickly. It’s common for developmental delays to be identified in schools, leading to a four-year delay. We’re trying to change that. The developmental assessment is done regularly at the hospital during general check-ups. We have the ability to support both the child and the family.”
Another unique and significant service the hospital provides is the Safeguarding team, which came into effect around May 2022. One of the only child protection services in the UAE capital, the team at Danat Al Emarat has been curated to remain vigilant and ensure children’s safety is paramount in all they do.
“If the child comes in with broken bones that appear suspicious, our team will work in tandem with authorities and families to ensure the child is safe. We have an Emirati social worker on board to ensure everything is done keeping cultural sensitivity in mind. While we started the team for children, we have also extended it to women who are subject to any kind of abuse.”
Circling back to curating a team on par with global standards, they recently worked with Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, to further enhance their capabilities to deliver general and complex surgeries alike, including those for premature babies.
In light of this, Jemma says, “Great Ormond Street Hospital is possibly one of the most well-known children’s hospitals in the world for the level of care that it provides. I went there in October with my team to visit because we want to establish a pediatric hospital that is on par with the centres of excellence and international standards,” she says.
“We’ve signed an MoU for Danat Al Emarat, whereby the teams at Great Ormond Street Hospital will be helping us to educate our clinical teams and expand the level of skill and knowledge that they have. It’s important for both the patients and for our team to have professional development at that kind of level.”
As the world grapples with a dynamic climate, children continue to pour in with cold and flu, some even needing ventilation during winter months. Which further underlines the importance of having robust rehab options in the UAE capital, making Danat Al Emarat an unparalleled standard of pediatric healthcare.
An exciting development for the hospital and the community is the Emirate Genome Project. The team is currently working on the same with G42 (a health-tech company) under M42, which is part of Mubadala to understand the DNA of the local population and create specialised healthcare.
“Simply put, how it works is that we take a blood sample of a newborn to understand and gather data on predisposed conditions among the local population. The Emirati Genome Program will sequence as many citizens’ genomes as possible to help better predict, prevent, and treat genetic and chronic illnesses,” she says.
Through it all, community outreach remains a core pillar of activities at Danat Al Emarat, including working with schools, doing healthcare promotions, community events, working with POD and more.
Reiterating their compassionate approach, the team ensures a follow-up call to check on the welfare of children within 24 hours of their check-up.
As Jemma puts it, “What sets us apart is the level of compassion and empathy from the entire team. Certain characteristics and strengths are required, most people are coming during pregnancy or when their child is sick, either way at a certain level of stress. So our communication levels need to be on par to manage the challenging situations.”
