FORUM SYNOPSIS:
Nayiri Hospital

The healthcare sector in Armenia is still recovering from the collapse of the old centralized Soviet system, where facilities upgrades, incorporation of best medical practices, and overall delivery of healthcare services are still far from an optimal state. Yet as Armenia moves forward in all spheres of life, the Nayiri Medical Center represents one effort to upgrade the dilapidated medical facilities still present in much of the country. The Center is housed in a newly reconstructed building, and features many state-of-art diagnostic equipment that is common in developed countries. In that light, on August 15, Birthright Armenia participants visited Nayiri Hospital to view firsthand its facilities and services..

The Director of the privately owned hospital, Narine Mamikonyan welcomed at the main entrance, after which one of her assistants gave a tour. The hospital was reconstructed in 2004 with the objective of providing high quality health care in the Republic of Armenia. The participants visited special examination rooms housing modern diagnostic equipment such as open MRI and CATSCAN devices, ultrasound equipment, a room for cardiac health assessment with treadmill and ECG. The group also visited the in-house laboratory which is currently undergoing complete refurbishing with modern western instrumentation.

Part of the tour included a stop at the Intensive Care Unit, and the post-operative private and semi-private recovery rooms. The rooms were furnished with TV sets and refrigerators, very similar to the types of rooms seen in advanced countries. Nayiri hospital currently has nearly 200 beds. Unfortunately, there was no chance to speak with any of the physicians to hear first hand about actual rendering of services and level of expertise available at the hospital.

The hospital is in expansion mode, and the main entrance hall has an architectural rendering of the completed project.