Accreditation Canada International is progressing the national accreditation program for the Kuwait Ministry of Health. The Ministry intends to implement an accreditation program for healthcare quality and to ensure national standards developed specifically for Kuwait are followed.
Accreditation Canada International is progressing the national accreditation program for the Kuwait Ministry of Health. The Ministry intends to implement an accreditation program for healthcare quality and to ensure national standards developed specifically for Kuwait are followed.
Earlier this year, three hospitals began piloting the accreditation programme, process and standards. They are two acute care hospitals and one specialist orthopedic clinic. The pilot hospitals established self-assessment teams and are completing the assessment against the relevant standards for their programme area. They need to show that they comply with five patient safety standards.
January 2010 will see Accreditation Canada provide on-site training to 40 surveyors. The surveyors will be selected by the Ministry of Health according to a surveyor system appropriate to the Kuwait accreditation programme structure and the Kuwait context. Accreditation Canada surveyors will mentor the Kuwaiti surveyors and support them in conducting their pilot surveys in February 2010.From March to June 2010, Accreditation Canada will work with the MOH to complete the survey reports for the three pilot surveys, evaluate them, adjust the standards and accreditation process if required, and finalize the programme and process.
There are already two local hospitals with international accreditation from Accreditation Canada; Dar Al Shifa Hospital in Safat and New Mowasat Hospital in Salmiya.The New Mowasat Hospital has launched its first Certified Professional in Health Care Quality (CPHQ) review and study program. According to Dr Ghada Welwel, a certified professional in health care quality, the program is part of the hospital’s objective to enhance the performance of its staff from the executive level to the bottom. She said New Mowasat Hospital is the first hospital in Kuwait to adopt the service quality standards applied by the Canadian board, “Through New Mowasat, the private and public hospitals in Kuwait are working hard to adopt these international standards. In a hospital setting, quality takes on a variety of meanings. It encompasses technical excellence. It is also about patient-centered approach to care delivered by the dedicated professionals in the hospital. In addition to having the technical and clinical expertise to provide safe and high quality care, it is also critical that the hospital focuses on other factors in a patient’s hospital experience. For us to develop high quality services we have to educate the staff on how to provide health care quality.”
Dr,Welwel plans to hold an international conference in February 2010 on the quality of patient care and the legal responsibility concerning the health and safety of patients, “Professionals from Europe and the United States are expected to attend this conference. It will be the first of its kind in the Middle East and hopefully it will take place in collaboration with New Mowasat.”
©2024 All rights reserved LaingBuisson 
