HMC celebrates 15 years of its Joint Commission International accreditation
HAMAD Medical Corporation (HMC) this year marks 15 years of continuous accreditation for its network of hospitals and services by the prestigious United States Joint Commission International (JCI).
JCI is an independent, notfor-profit organisation, that accredits and certifies healthcare organisations and programmes across the globe.
JCI Accreditation and Certification is recognised as a global leader for healthcare quality of care and patient safety. JCI is a division of the Joint Commission Resources (JCR), the non-profit affiliate of the Joint Commission which has been accrediting healthcare organisations and programmes in the US for more than 50 years.
The JCI mission is ‘To continuously improve the safety and quality of care in the international community through the provision of education and consultation services and international accreditation’.
HMC’s hospitals have been accredited by the organisation for more than 40 times over the last 15 years, recognising the organisation’s international standards of care and commitment to providing the best care for all patients.
In 2019, 13 of HMC’s hospitals were accredited by the JCI out of which 12 of the hospitals were accredited on Hospital Standards and one, Hamad Dental Center, on Ambulatory
Care Standards. This included eight hospitals which already held JCI accreditation also being successfully re-accredited, as well as accreditation for the first time for five hospitals: Ambulatory Care Center, Communicable Disease Center, Qatar Rehabilitation Institute, Hamad Dental Center and Mental Health Service.
Dr Badriya Sulaiman Said Al Ali, deputy chief quality officer for Regulatory Affairs and Primary coordinator of the JCI-HMC Accreditation Programme at HMC, said that accreditation is recognised as a framework to integrate a quality management system while reducing risk, and requires a systematic assessment of hospitals against explicit standards.
International accreditation programmes, such as Joint Commission International’s, can go a long way towards helping hospitals not only to improve their systems of care but also meet the needs of their often more diverse population of patients.
Dr Ali said, “Health care organisations around the world want to create environments that focus on quality, safety and continuous improvement. JCI accreditation meets this demand by stimulating continuous, systematic improvements in a hospital’s performance and the outcomes. Accreditation is the gold standard of excellence in the healthcare.
“Accreditation is attainable only through collaboration among all organisation staff members. Providing highquality care is a team effort and one that gives employees a feeling of prestige to work in an accredited organisation.”
Dr Ali also stated that the accreditation process involves a thorough evaluation of a healthcare organisation’s performance in areas that most affect patient health and safety. In getting accreditation, an organisation makes a commitment to adhere to and maintain JCI standards, which provide the framework for safe and quality care.
He said, “HMC chose to pursue JCI accreditation to affirm its belief, as well as the public’s, that it is an excellent organisation that delivers care with a patient-centric focus and JCI accreditation is the basic foundation for quality healthcare and we must pursue the highest standards to create centres of excellence.
“With the JCI Gold Seal of Approval, HMC commits to keep striving for the highest level of performance possible, improve patient outcomes and create an environment for continuous improvement.”
After rigorous inspections, HMC’s hospitals were first given official JCI accreditation in 2006 and that continued till 2019, which is 15 years of passing the JCI Accreditation process. HMC hospitals and services are part of an elite group of the best healthcare providers in the world.
“Getting JCI accreditation is part of our commitment to improving the way we deliver healthcare. JCI’s standards for hospitals clearly define the principles and processes needed to assess the key functions of acute care organisations and associated ambulatory settings. It has been quite an experience for HMC. We have learnt to look at health care from the patients’ point of view. We have put in place processes that will improve the quality of care. We can confidently say that we are providing patient care that meets international standards, and that we will continue to improve,” Dr Ali said.