The Caribbean’s most innovative hospital just passed a major milestone.

Health City Cayman Islands is celebrating three years since it opened its doors. In that time, the hospital has treated more than 29,000 patients.

As the hospital celebrates its third anniversary this month, officials at the Joint Commission International-accredited facility are recommitting to its pledge of high quality, affordable healthcare for all, and preparing for a long future of outstanding medical provision.

“As we continue on this journey, we’ve seen many more milestones achieved, not least more international patients coming to Health City for treatment,” said Dr. Chandy Abraham, Health City’s CEO and Medical Director, pointing to a 55 percent year-on-year surge in international patients in the first two months of this year.

“Our positive patient experiences demonstrate our dedication to the highest possible standard of compassionate care, he added, invoking the hospital’s 1,900-plus procedures since opening in 2014, including more than 640 orthopedic surgeries, and over 280 cardiac surgeries, with overall infection and readmission rates of less than one percent.

Health City’s medical teams, who treated patients from 60 countries just in 2016, champion innovation and have scored some notable firsts in the region.

Health City became the first hospital in the English-speaking Caribbean to use robotic navigation for joint replacements and the first to install two artificial hearts or left ventricle assist devices.

Other Caribbean firsts include performing transcatheter aortic valve replacements or implantations; minimally invasive clot extraction for strokes, which dramatically improves post-stroke outcomes; and renal denervation, a minimally invasive procedure using radiofrequency ablation to treat resistant hypertension.

“I am amazingly pleased with my care,” said an emergency cardiac patient at Health City, Dr. Leon Josephs from Massachusetts. “I am a vascular surgeon and my care was as good, if not better, than anything I have seen. The model here is what the U.S. healthcare system is striving to.”

“A big reason we came here was because it was 10 times more affordable than the States,” said Álvaro Jiménez, from Guatemala, after the hospital saved his three-month old son. “They made everything much easier or more human.”

“We are very, very lucky to have a modern facility like this on a small island,” said the owner and CEO of the Tortuga Rum Company Ltd., Robert Hamaty, who received pulmonology care at Health City.

“Over the past year we’ve been rapidly increasing how many specialties we offer, and so we’ve also seen a big increase in the number of patients coming to us,” Dr. Abraham said, adding that Health City’s future goals include expanding accommodation at the East End campus, increasing its range of medical services and getting young Caymanians interested in science.