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Doha
Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) general hospitals are on par with the world’s best hospitals, according to the Joint Commission International (JCI) surveyors’ report.
The survey followed the recent accreditation of 13 of HMC’s facilities and services by the JCI, including the re-accreditation of three of its general hospitals – Al Khor Hospital, The Cuban Hospital, and Al Wakra Hospital.
As part of the re-accreditation, a team of JCI surveyors evaluated a number of areas ranging from patient satisfaction to performance improvements and efficiency.
In 2016, HMC made history becoming the first healthcare organisation in the world to have all its hospitals qualified under the JCI Academic Medical Center accreditation programme. Since this time HMC’s general hospitals have undergone considerable growth, both in terms of the number of patients treated and the services offered.
Al Khor Hospital’s Chief Executive Officer Mohammed al Jusaiman said amidst expanding patient needs, HMC’s general hospitals have continued to make quality of care and patient safety top priorities.
Jusaiman said, “In 2018 we cared for over 350,000 patients across our emergency department, various outpatient departments, and day care, radiology and dialysis units. In spite of increased patient numbers, we’ve continued to implement key improvement initiatives that are making a real difference to the quality of care we provide.”
Jusaiman, who is also Deputy Chief of HMC’s General Hospitals Group, said one improvement initiative recently introduced led to the establishment of two new clinics which have reduced patient wait times and improved patient experience.
The establishment of a post-discharge clinic to provide follow-up care for discharged patients and a pre-operative clinic to assess patients before surgery have both improved patient satisfaction and reduced wait times from up to eight weeks for the pre-operative clinic and up to ten weeks for the post-discharge clinic to just one week.
Al Wakra Hospital, which cares for patients in the south of the country, was also recognised for its role in bringing specialist services into the community setting. The country’s only dedicated burns unit was relocated to the general hospital and a number of specialised clinics, including the region’s only Urinary Stone Center, have been established at Al Wakra Hospital.
“We are delighted to have once again achieved JCI accreditation. Since our last surveyor visit in 2016, we have expanded the quality and range of services we deliver to our patients. We’ve opened a new Admissions and Discharge Lounge to improve our patient’s care experience and we speed up the admission and discharge process,” said Dr Sabah al Kadhi, Al Wakra Hospital’s medical director.
“We’ve also established a Hernia Surgery Center which is the only internationally accredited facility in the region to offer patients robotic hernia repair. Last year, we began treating patients at our new specialised Urinary Stone Center, which is also the first of its kind in the region. We were also chosen to be the home for HMC’s expanded Burns Unit, which has its own dedicated operating theatre as well as inpatient rooms and an occupational therapy room,” added Dr Kadhi.
The Cuban Hospital was also acknowledged for its expansion of services, which include a laser eye surgery clinic, dental specialty services, bariatric and cosmetic services, and a 24-hour translation service, which has improved communication between Arabic-speaking patients and Cuban health professionals.
The hospital has also experienced a 35 percent growth in the number of surgical procedures it performed since 2016.
Dr Angel Mario Felipe Garmendia, The Cuban Hospital’s medical director, said while the expansion of new services have been important and are noteworthy, the introduction of patient safety and prevention programmes were a major focus of the JCI inspector’s recent visit.
Dr Garmendia said, “The Qatar Early Warning System (QAWS) is a scoring system that helps clinical staff recognise deteriorating patients before they become very sick. This programme has been instrumental in diagnosing and treating patients who need intervention to prevent their condition from worsening.
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26/06/2019
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