Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) first mobile patient library was officially launched last week by Nasser al-Naimi, deputy chief of quality at HMC, Center for Patient Experience and Staff Experience (CPESE) and director, Hamad Healthcare Quality Institute during a ceremony at Qatar Rehabilitation Institute (QRI).
The opening of the library follows the launch of the Patient Experience Forum in March by HE Dr Hanan Mohamed al-Kuwari, Minister of Public Health, during the Middle East Forum on Quality and Safety in Healthcare.
QRI is the first HMC facility to receive a mobile patient library and any of its inpatients wishing to borrow a book can now do so through the Nesma’ak customer service team located within the hospital. Patients wanting to access the library are brought a mobile device which has a catalog listing all the books available. Once a patient has browsed through the selection and chosen the book they wish to borrow, the Nesma’ak customer service representative then delivers the book to the patient’s bedside. 
The library has been developed through collaborative partnerships with a number of organisations, including the Ministry of Culture and Sports and a number of embassies, including the Embassy of the Republic of Korea, the Embassy of Japan, and the Embassy of Thailand. Katara Cultural Village, Qatar University, and the Sheikh Abdulla Bin Zaid Al Mahmoud Islamic Cultural Centre have also donated books and future donations are expected from the Qatar National Library. 
The CPESE team has also organised a book donation drive across HMC and staff and members of the public have been encouraged to donate books at the designated donation boxes placed at Nesma’ak reception counters across all HMC hospitals.
Al-Naimi noted, “Improving the patient experience is one of CPESE’s main priorities and this means taking a holistic approach to making a hospital stay as pleasant as possible. Having a library for our patients will provide them with an invaluable opportunity to relax and uplift their spirits whilst recovering in hospital. We already have over 300 books donated and we hope that through continued donations, this number will grow.”
“This is just the beginning; our long-term plan is to increase the number of multi-language books we have in circulation and to expand the number of libraries we have across all HMC facilities, so our inpatients can relax with a book during their hospital stay. I am extremely
grateful to all our partners who have donated books to support our patient library and we are especially proud to have received books in over ten different languages so those patients who may have very little knowledge of the English and Arabic languages are also able to enjoy the library,” added al-Naimi.
In the coming year, the CPESE team plans to roll-out the mobile patient library to other HMC facilities with long-term care patients, such as the Enaya Specialised Care Center and the Communicable Disease Center.
Any questions about the book donation drive can be directed to the CPESE team at [email protected]
Related Story