Qatar has achieved a significant distinction with Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) becoming the first healthcare system across the globe to have all of its hospitals accredited by the Joint Commission International (JCI) under the Academic Medical Centre programme.
It has also become the first hospital system outside the US to achieve JCI Academic Medical Centre accreditation for all its hospitals simultaneously.
This follows almost two months of 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 January this year, a JCI team of surveyors has closely examined over 304 standards and 1,400 measurable elements in the hospitals of 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.
This achievement is even more impressive as the hospitals were evaluated against JCI’s 5th edition standards – the most challenging standards to date.
HE Dr Hanan Mohamed al-Kuwari, Minister of Public Health and 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. This achievement puts HMC alongside an elite international group of healthcare providers to gain Academic Medical Centre 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 “Successfully achieving Academic Medical Centre Accreditation simultaneously across all hospitals shows there is more than just a commitment to provide great care all the time – there is a commitment to share learning and develop new ways of delivering even better care.”
Prof. Adeel Butt, interim chief quality officer, and director, Hamad Healthcare Quality Institute said that accreditation by JCI and the distinction of becoming the first organisation to achieve system-wide compliance with Academic Medical Centre standards underlines the progress HMC has made in becoming a place where the world’s leading clinicians and researchers now want to work.
Dr. Badriya al-Ali, deputy chief quality officer, HMC said that the announcement was the pinnacle of a 10-year period in which the JCI has evaluated quality at HMC, which has supported hospital staff to continuously improve the quality and safety of care they provide.
Dr. Yousuf al-Maslamani, medical director, Hamad General Hospital, added: “Every single employee of HMC knows that our approach is to provide the Best Care Always. Today’s announcement shows we are delivering on that commitment and that we have made significant strides towards becoming one of the world’s leading healthcare providers.”