King Saud University Medical City receives accolades at Healthcare Asia Awards 2024

It is amongst the first healthcare organisations that have taken significant steps in conserving energy and utilising renewable energy.

Tertiary care academic medical centre King Saud University Medical City (KSUMC) bagged two major wins at the prestigious Healthcare Asia Awards 2024 for its commendable performance in the past year and its commitment to sustainability programmes in alignment with the Saudi Vision 2030.

They have won the Hospital of the Year - Saudi Arabia and the Facilities Improvement Initiative of the Year - Saudi Arabia for their remarkable accomplishments.

Established in 1974 as one university hospital, KSUMC currently has three large university hospitals, which are: King Abdulaziz University Hospital, King Khalid University Hospital, and Dental University Hospital, the largest dental hospital in the world per Guinness World Records. These have a 1,800-bed capacity, a total of 145 medical programmes, an annual average of 1,000 students, and more than 4,500 medical interns.

The medical city also has 11 centres of excellence, specifically in oncology, clinical skills and simulation, family medicine, diabetes, cardiac, sports medicine, cochlear surgery, sleep medicine, laparoscopic surgery, national centre for sudden death, and health research centre.

In the past year, KSUMC has been ranked first in the healthcare sector in Saudi Arabia, specifically in oncology and otorhinolaryngology, by the Scimago Institution Rankings – which assesses universities and research-focused institutions. In 2024, KSUMC has ranked third nationally and 64th internationally in the 250 top Academic Hospitals in the world by Brand Finance.  

For the first time outside North America, the American Skull Base Society has also distinguished a multidisciplinary skull base surgery team from KSUMC. The team has an expert medical staff supported by the latest medical equipment to perform complex operations. They have completed around 250 cases since their accreditation at the end of 2022. 

Meanwhile, in alignment with the Saudi Vision 20230, KSUMC started the journey of being a green organisation in 2019 and has made huge milestones since then.

KSUMC has been amongst the first healthcare organisations in Saudi Arabia that took a significant step to conserve energy and utilise renewable energy, by installing solar panels in nine different buildings with an average amount of 514.14 megawatts production annually. Additionally, the use of solar panels has further reduced carbon emissions by 2,746 tons annually. As a result, its total carbon emissions have been reduced to 34,646 thousand tons as of 2022.

Moreover, through its continuous efforts to identify improvement opportunities, it has reduced the amount of its medical waste to 1,379,397 kilograms in 2022.

These green initiatives earned KSUMC the recognition of the Global Green and Healthy Hospitals (GGHH) in 2023. GGHH is an international network of health organisations dedicated to reducing their environmental footprint and promoting public and environmental health. 

KSUMC’s achievements would not have been possible without the guidance of its CEO Ahmed bin Salah Hersi, who has also been recognised as amongst the top CEOs for academic medical centres in the past year.

Healthcare Asia Awards recognises exceptional healthcare providers that have redefined the standards of healthcare through their unwavering dedication to innovation, setting of new industry benchmarks, and substantial contributions to their communities.

The Healthcare Asia Awards is presented by Healthcare Asia Magazine. To view the full list of winners, click here. If you want to join the 2025 awards programme and be acclaimed for your organisation's remarkable initiatives and contributions to the healthcare industry, please contact Julie Anne Nuñez at [email protected].