Half a dozen top notch healthcare facilities in South Africa, Nigeria, Botswana and Uganda have just received accreditation awards from COHSASA, marking measurable progress in the drive for safer, more consistent care across the continent, reports Bizcommunity.
Two of them – Duchess International Hospital in Lagos and Overstrand Hospice in Hermanus, Western Cape – have achieved two-year accreditation for the first time, while the awards also mark an important milestone for South Africa’s Cure Day Hospitals.
Its Bellville and Somerset West facilities are the first in the 11-hospital South African group – soon to become 12 – to secure four-year accreditation.
Over the past nine years, Cure Day Hospitals has steadily embedded quality improvement and patient safety into the way it operates, using COHSASA’s accreditation programme as a framework for strengthening standards.
The group joined the programme in 2017. Today, 11 of its hospitals are accredited: Bellville, Bloemfontein, East London, Erasmuskloof, Fourways, Medkin, Midstream, Paarl, Somerset West, Wilgeheuwel and Newmarket Day Hospital, with the Foreshore hospital due for accreditation in November.
More are scheduled to join the programme in the future.
Group CEO Bert von Wielligh said accreditation was far more than a certificate of achievement and that it reinforces a culture in which quality and patient safety are part of everyday practice.
Team buy-in at Hospice
Patient care manager of the Overstrand Hospice, Esmé Potgieter, said: “What stood out for me through this COHSASA process was the buy-in and the pride the team took in the preparation for the accreditation process. It also improved teamwork and accountability across clinical and non-clinical departments.
“The quality improvement process helped us to standardise documentation, medication safety and adverse event reporting.”
She said although there was initial resistance to change and workload, “this was well addressed through training and visible management support”.
“It was a very good learning experience, and we are proud to have been able to achieve the 5-star status we aimed for.”
How accreditation is earned and sustained
To achieve full COHSASA (Council for Health Service Accreditation of Southern Africa) accreditation, a facility must complete a rigorous quality improvement programme and comply with standards accredited by the International Society for Quality in Health Care External Evaluation Association (ISQua EEA), the global authority overseeing healthcare quality in more than 70 countries.
COHSASA is also accredited by ISQua EEA and is the only internationally recognised healthcare accrediting body based in sub-Saharan Africa.
Facilities entering the programme initially receive a two-year accreditation once they meet these demanding standards.
Longer awards follow as quality systems mature and performance is sustained. A four-year award signals that a facility has consistently met the required standards for at least eight years.
The award is not the end of the process. Every accredited facility undergoes an interim survey midway through its accreditation cycle to confirm that standards are being maintained, and patients continue to receive high-quality care.
Other facilities to have been awarded accreditation were: Bokamasa Private Hospital (four years), in Gaborone, Botswana and Uganda Martyrs Hospital in Kampala (three years).
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
COHSASA awards: resilience in the face of a pandemic
Latest hospital accreditations awarded by COHSASA
COHSASA’s latest hospital accreditations: Cureday, International Hospital and 6 Mediclinics