Dr. Maarouf: Treating with transparency
Ahmad Maarouf, M.D. is the director of the Intensive Care Unit at Beaumont, Trenton, where he manages the culture, standards and protocol of care. He joined the Beaumont team in 2011 at Oakwood. When choosing, he said he sensed a strong sense of community in this health system.
“The culture of our staff is centered around caring for their community,” Dr. Maarouf said.
Dr. Maarouf went to medical school at Damascus University in Syria. After graduation, he completed his residency at Western Reserve Hospital in Ohio and fellowships in nephrology and critical care at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
In 2014, with the help of the nursing, respiratory therapy staff, nutritionists and others, Dr. Maarouf started patient and family-centered ICU rounds.
“We have a comprehensive team,” he said. “I got a lot of support from the hospital.”
When working in the transplant ICU at the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Maarouf had a profound medical experience. He saw the interactions between donors and recipients of organs, while fostering care for both, and forming relationships with their families in a complex environment.
“It is satisfying when you take care of patients with transplanted organs -- that experience is priceless” Dr. Maarouf said.
In his career, he has certainly learned something he believes all physicians should adopt: transparency with patients and their families is the key to transcending modern health care and moving to the next era.
It is also the biggest change he has seen in the medical field since he began his career. Dr. Maarouf said he sees much more emphasis on transparency and being patient and family-centered.
“We’re paying more attention to the patient experience,” he said. “The focus is on the patients and their families. The transition has been rough for some, but I think it’s the right way to go.”
By the time Dr. Maarouf retires, he wants to know that he trained the younger generation of physicians to be more open about patient and family-centered care.
When he is not in the office with patients, Dr. Maarouf spends much of his free time studying. He just earned his MBA, and he loves to travel the world. He has visited Europe, Mexico, the Middle East and Hawaii.