Orapa Hospital crowned country�s best

Lebogang Mosikare | Wednesday December 17, 2014 20:29

Orapa, Letlhakane and Damtshaa Mines (OLDM) general manager, Adrian Gale said Orapa was only one of two COHSASA accredited health facilities in the country. COHSASA is the only internationally accredited quality improvement and accreditation body for healthcare facilities based in Africa.

Speaking at the hospital’s re-accreditation ceremony on Friday, Gale said the score of 99 percent was “unprecedented in the country”.

“The hospital has since been accredited three times, each time doing a little better which has culminated in this year’s fourth audit with a score of 99 percent,” he said. “This figure is unprecedented in the country. Orapa Hospital therefore now remains accredited for a period of three years.

“I can say with confidence that we are in fact one of only two hospitals currently fully accredited in the country,” he said.

Gale said the accreditation to the Hospital and the confidence health care providers and patients have in it. “The accreditation demonstrates to patients and other stakeholders who are involved in making informed decisions about the competence and ethics at the hospital that they can have full trust and confidence that their health needs will be met professionally,” said Gale.

“As Debswana management, we are happy that the Hospital is in such a manner that the quality of service and management are of an international level.”

The accreditation, Gale said, mean that standards are well maintained especially in high risk areas such as quality improvement programmes, documentation controls, health records, health and safety programmes, the staff appraisal plan, the strategic management plan, negative incidents, patient complaints and resuscitation.

He added: “The accreditation also shows that the Hospital has a well defined mission with transparent objectives designed to meet best practice and outstanding professionalism.

“There are clearly defined practices of how to interact with patients to ensure their health and wellbeing and you can rest assured that there are systems to monitor the level of quality of service and to integrate all services in the hospital in order to maximise efficiency”.

COHSASA deputy chief executive officer, Jacqueline Steward, said the Council is one of only 27 healthcare accrediting bodies in the world that hold a current international accreditation programme award from the International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQUA).

“We are proud of the work we do at COHSASA and there is nothing more satisfying than seeing a hospital or clinic team really take the ownership of the programme,” Steward said, adding that, “We are accredited by the same body that accredits the large bodies like the Joint Commission International of America and Accreditation Canada. We remain the only internationally accredited healthcare facility accreditation body in Africa”.