About Us
The Nur-Avicenum is a small non-profit cardiac and primary care hospital in the Eastern Kazakhstani city of Taldykorgan. Opened in 1991, as a tax-free non-profit organization, the Nur-Avicenum sought to address the growing number of cardiovascular diseases found among the local population, since then the Nur-Avicenum has become the premier cardiology site for Eastern Kazakhstan.
The Nur-Avicenum now offers a wide variety of medical services including cardiology, pediatrics, and a mobile hospital that serves the outlying communities and provides preventative medicine seminars in the local schools. The Nur-Avicenum continues to be at the forefront of medical innovation in Kazakhstan. Its latest endeavor was to assist the state oblast hospital in conducting the first telemedicine project in Kazakhstan. This newfound knowledge in telemedicine has led the hospital to strive to create its own telemedicine project with international medical consultations through its association with the University of Virginia Medical Center.
These advances in medical services have brought about wide recognition from the nomenclature of Kazakhstan. In late 1995, the government was so impressed by the great gains in health care provided at the Nur-Avicenum that The President of Kazakhstan, His Excellency Nursultan Nasarbaev made a personal visit to the hospital to tour the facilities and congratulate the staff on a job well done. President Nasarbaev was so impressed with the level of health care the Nur-Avicenum provides that the Minister of Health and his deputy were directed to visit the hospital in February 1996 to learn why the Nur-Avicenum was so successful in improving the health care of the community.
One reason why the Nur-Avicenum has been so successful is its special relationships with international organizations and foreign governments. The German government has been an especially strong supporter of the Nur-Avicenum. They have donated a dentist chair and equipment, a new tile floor for the laboratory and have given some monetary support. The Nur-Avicenum has also worked closely with international aid agencies such as Mercy Corps, Counterpart Consortium and the PeaceCorps.
The Nur-Avicenum currently has a staff of 68 including 21 doctors and 30 nurses. The hospital employs doctors with specialties in such diverse fields as cardiology, neurology, endocrinology, and pediatrics. In 2003, the staff provided top-notch medical care to 24,599 patients, of which nearly 8,300 were seen at no cost to themselves.
Since its inception the Nur-Avicenum has never turned away a person in need of health care regardless of their ability to pay for their treatment. In fact, the hospital acts as a safety net to those individuals who are turned away from the state run hospital.