DOHA: Qatar yesterday achieved significant distinction after Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) became the first healthcare system across the globe to have all of its hospitals accredited by Joint Commission International (JCI) under the Academic Medical Centre programme.

HMC has also become the first hospital system outside the US to achieve the accreditation for all its hospitals simultaneously.

This follows almost two months of rigorous on-site surveys by the internationally-renowned independent JCI which identifies measures and shares leading practices in healthcare quality and patient safety across the world.

Since the beginning of this January a JCI team of surveyors has examined over 304 standards and 1400 measurable elements in the hospitals that make up HMC — all of which have now received official Gold Seal of Approval for accreditation under the Academic Medical Centre Hospital standards. JCI accreditation is considered the gold standard in healthcare.

The achievement is more impressive as the hospitals were evaluated against JCI’s 5th edition standards — the most challenging to date — and demonstrates that staff across HMC at every facility are applying the same very high standards of care.

Achieving accreditation on this scale means that HMC is fully compliant with JCI standards for the delivery of daily safe high quality care and International Patient Safety Goals.

Minister of Public Health H E Dr Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari also Managing Director HMC said: “This world-first accreditation is an enormous achievement for HMC and the public health system in Qatar and demonstrates its commitment to continuously learning teaching and improving care. The achievement puts HMC alongside an elite international group of healthcare providers to gain the centre’s accreditation and shows that its approach to developing excellence in healthcare in Qatar is transforming the care it is providing for patients.”

Dr Paul Chang Vice-President Accreditation Standards and Measurement JCI said: “Achieving the centre’s accreditation simultaneously across all hospitals shows there is more than just a commitment to provide great care all the time — there’s a commitment to share learning and develop new ways of delivering even better care. All staff at HMC should be congratulated for such an outstanding achievement.”

Prof Adeel Butt Interim Chief Quality Officer and Director Hamad Healthcare Quality Institute said the JCI accreditation and the distinction of becoming the first organisation to achieve system-wide compliance with the centre’s standards underlines the progress HMC has made in becoming a place where the world’s leading clinicians and researchers now want to come and work.

“Over the past 10 years we’ve been able to attract more and more of the world’s leading clinicians and researchers to come and work here and today’s announcement is the clearest signal yet that our journey is delivering real and positive results.

“Our patients are the people who ultimately benefit from this — by focusing on academic health we are able to push new boundaries of health care finding new solutions to support patients with long term and chronic conditions that will have a lasting impact on their quality of life.”

Dr Badriya Al Ali Deputy Chief Quality Officer HMC said the announcement is the pinnacle of a 10-year period in which JCI has evaluated quality at HMC which has supported hospital staff to continuously improve quality and safety of care they provide.

“This is a momentous occasion which recognises the hard work our staff across all of our hospitals put into providing the highest quality and safest care every day.

“I am delighted that we have demonstrated sustainable quality HMC can offer and that we are accredited corporately as an academic medical centre achieved through a huge team effort.” Dr Yousuf Al Maslamani Medical Director Hamad General Hospital said: “Every employee of Hamad knows that our approach is to always provide the best care. The announcement shows that we are delivering on that commitment and that we have made significant strides towards becoming one of the world’s leading healthcare providers.”

The Peninsula