Nashat Nafouri

Executive Officer & Healthcare Interest Group Chair

Dr. Nafouri is an advocate in Total Quality Management, excellence models, strategic planning, healthcare governance, performance management, leadership coaching and mentoring, excellence and safety cultures, infection prevention, occupational and environmental health, and clinical laboratory accreditation, with over 25 years of experience. He serves on the Saudi Quality Council (SQC) Board as Executive Officer and Chairman of the Healthcare Interest Group (HIG), which has laid the foundation of quality in healthcare institutions since it was established in 2003 and held its 20th annual meeting in 2024. He currently serves as Organizational Excellence and Quality Consultant at the Security Forces Hospital, Makkah, which achieved the silver level of the King Abdulaziz Quality Award in its 7th cycle in 2024, and he is helping the leadership craft the 4th strategic plan for 2026-2028, including the strategic analysis, goals and objectives, KPIs, operational execution plans, and departmental heatmaps. He previously served as Organizational Excellence and Quality Consultant at King Salman Medical City and the Madinah health cluster, leading the city's effort toward the King Abdulaziz Quality Award and Joint Commission International accreditation. He is engaged as an ISO series trainer in a SASO project to improve quality management in Saudi manufacturing factories in line with Vision 2030. He is becoming a registered Associate Consultant with the British Standards Institution (BSI) for ISO 9001, 14001, 22000, and 31000. In 2024 he affiliated with Sterling International, USA, to introduce the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award platform in the Kingdom. He served as a subject matter expert in the 1st health cluster in the Riyadh region, conducting improvement projects and leadership workshops. As COO and Medical and Quality Chief of FutureLab, he succeeded in making 10 laboratories accredited by CBAHI in less than a year and conducted the first successful virtual CAP inspection in the private laboratory sector. His efforts in helping Nahdi Care establish a quality culture, and become the first in the Kingdom to achieve two healthcare accreditations, CBAHI and ACHSI, in ambulatory care in 2023, were recognized by its leadership. He gained the trust of the Public Health Authority (PHA) leadership and became a part-time consultant and advisor sitting on strategic committees shaping public health in the Kingdom, and served as team leader for inspecting laboratories toward obtaining the COVID-19 testing license. He was appointed by the Saudi Standards, Metrology and Quality Organization (SASO) as a consultant to assess the health sector's readiness based on the King Abdulaziz Quality Award standards, as a foundation for the 2025-2030 National Quality Strategy. He has led assessment teams for the Abu Dhabi Award for Excellence in Government Performance, the Taif Excellence Award, and the King Abdulaziz Quality Award since 2007, and is a registered Excellence Team Leader Assessor in the King Abdulaziz Quality Award, having led teams in many cycles, most recently as team leader in the 7th cycle in 2024, and contributed to modifying many of its standards and assessment tools. His professional efforts have also been appreciated by the Taif Government Excellence Award, the Abu Dhabi Government Excellence Award, the King Abdullah Quality Award, the Dubai Quality Award, and the Subbai Charity Award. He is a registered inspector with the College of American Pathologists (CAP) and an assessor with the Association for the Advancement of Blood & Biotherapies (AABB), USA, since 2002. In 2007 he received formal training on the EFQM model, the foundation of the Abu Dhabi Government Excellence Award, to assess 13 governmental entities. His expertise in crafting and revising quality-of-care standards and standard operating procedures led him to join the Australian accreditation standards development committee as an international member, which resulted in the publication of the seventh edition of the Evaluation and Quality Improvement Program (EQuIP7) for hospital and primary care standards in 2020. His quality networking has been recognized since 2002 by accrediting bodies: CAP commended his efforts in spreading quality culture in medical laboratories across the Kingdom, and he was appointed regional advisor and partner for Joint Commission International (JCI), Accreditation Canada, and the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS). He is ambassador of the Program Office for Laboratory Quality Management (POLQM) of the University of British Columbia, Canada, and regional representative of the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI), USA, and formerly of the Clinical Laboratory Management Association (CLMA), USA. He achieved the first CAP accreditation with distinction in 2004 for King Abdulaziz Medical City, Ministry of National Guard, and led the nomination of 85 national candidates to become CAP inspectors. He led several chapters and was Quality Observer toward Joint Commission International accreditation at King Abdulaziz Medical City, Jeddah, Health Affairs, Ministry of National Guard, from 2004 to 2019, with accreditation achieved in every cycle. He co-led the Prevention and Control of Infection chapter and established the hospital's safety, occupational, and environmental health programs. He co-chaired the Emergency Preparedness Committee and the Regional Safety Committee, contributing to overcoming the 2009 Jeddah flooding crisis and establishing a risk vulnerability analysis program. He participated in and commissioned more than 20 strategic and expansion projects at King Abdulaziz Medical City, Jeddah, including the trauma and neuroscience center, King Abdullah Children's Hospital, King Faisal Cardiology Center, Princess Nora Oncology Center, OR-1 expansion, burn unit, ICU expansion, ambulatory care center, diabetes and rehabilitation center, CSSD, blood bank, toxicology center, dental clinics, and the central laboratory. He was formerly a lecturer in the Saudi Fellowship Board in Community Medicine, a part-time faculty member at the American University in Cairo for Infection Prevention & Control and Quality Management courses, and a faculty member at King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Ministry of National Guard. He is the founder of the Seeding Knowledge Conference series, an Advisory Board member of the Middle East Quality and Patient Safety Conference Series since 2012, Scientific Chair of the Quality Management and Lab Quality Management conferences at the Saudi Global Health Congress from 2018 to 2023, scientific chair of the lab quality management conference track at MedLab since 2024, and co-founder of the GCC Lab Leaders Breakfast Round Table at MedLab 2025. In 2019 he was recognized as a quality giant by Professor Mohammad Zairi, head of the European Center for Best Practice Management, for 25 years of commitment to promoting quality. He is the 2015 Quality Leadership Award winner endorsed by the World Quality Congress and Awards and the Asian Confederation of Business, and his career was featured in The Arab Icons and The Saudi Lens magazines in 2025. He earned a B.Sc. in Medical Technology from the College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah (1991), a postgraduate diploma in Biotechnology from the British Columbia Institute of Technology, Vancouver, Canada (1998), and a Ph.D. in Business Administration with a Healthcare Quality Management focus from the International Washington University, USA (2005).