Mayo Clinic expands Middle East footprint with opening of Riyadh Representative Office

SAUDI ARABIA— Mayo Clinic has opened a new patient representative office in Riyadh to help patients, families, healthcare providers, insurers and referring physicians in the region access its specialised medical services.

The new office strengthens Mayo Clinic’s presence in the Middle East and provides a direct link between patients in Saudi Arabia and its medical campuses in the US and UK.

It joins 20 other Mayo Clinic representative offices across Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, and Asia, including the organisation’s established regional hub in Dubai Healthcare City.

Supporting patients and families

Staff at the Riyadh office speak Arabic and English and assist patients seeking appointments at Mayo Clinic locations in Rochester, Minnesota; Phoenix and Scottsdale, Arizona; Jacksonville, Florida; and Mayo Clinic Healthcare in London.

In addition, the office helps patients and their families navigate the administrative aspects of seeking treatment abroad.

This support includes coordinating appointments, arranging travel and accommodation, addressing billing and insurance matters, and providing general information about Mayo Clinic.

The services come at no cost to patients, although the office does not provide medical care.

“Mayo Clinic welcomes patients from around the world who need specialised care for serious and complex medical conditions,” said Omar Ghanem, MD, Mayo Clinic’s medical director for the Middle East and chair of the Division of Metabolic and Abdominal Wall Reconstructive Surgery in Rochester.

“The Riyadh office staff helps patients in the region connect with Mayo Clinic and navigate every stage of the process, from exploring appointments to planning travel and housing,” he added.

Connecting regional healthcare providers

The office also supports healthcare providers, payers and other organisations seeking to connect with Mayo Clinic.

Mayo Clinic accepts appointment requests directly from patients as well as referrals from physicians.

To facilitate communication, the healthcare provider makes interpreters available at no cost for patients whose primary language is not English.

Its care teams also coordinate services across specialties to provide patients with a seamless experience.

This approach includes scheduling consultations, diagnostic tests and procedures close to one another where possible, while one personal physician coordinates the patient’s care.

Mayo Clinic also facilitates communication between its teams and patients’ healthcare providers in their home countries.

Supporting GCC healthcare transformation

The Riyadh office also reflects growing demand for cross-border coordination of complex medical care in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region.

Through the office, Mayo Clinic aims to simplify administrative, language and travel arrangements for patients seeking advanced treatment for serious or rare conditions.

At the same time, the organisation intends to complement healthcare transformation programmes across the GCC by supporting international collaboration between physicians and promoting knowledge sharing.

 The office is located at 3228 Imam Saud Ibn Faisal Road, Al Malqa District, Riyadh.

Mayo Clinic is ranked the world’s best hospital by Newsweek and has more top-ranked specialties than any other US hospital, according to U.S. News & World Report.