SEHA announces an important event to address International Patient Safety Goals

The event's goal is to further increase awareness amongst SEHA and other healthcare professionals of the Six International Patient Safety Goals.

The six International Patient Safety Goals address the following crucial patient safety subjects: improving the accuracy of patient identification; making communication more effective; improving the safety of using high-alert medications; ensuring correct-site, correct-procedure, correct-person surgery; reducing the risk of health care-associated infections; and reducing the risk of patient harm resulting from falls.

Meeting these goals helps healthcare facilities to ensure that a safe healthcare environment is provided for the patient. Compliance with standards & each International Patient Safety Goals is a requirement for JCIA accreditation too.

H.E. Saif Bader Al Qubaisi, Chairman and Managing Director of SEHA said,

"The foundation of quality patient care is a proactive program of patient safety. One of our overarching goals at SEHA is to meet or exceed international healthcare quality standards. These International Patient Safety Goals are fundamental to our achievement of high quality healthcare standards and the optimal level of patient safety."

Mr. Carl Vincent Stanifer, the CEO of SEHA commented, "This event is part of a continuing drive by SEHA to ensure and emphasize its commitment to patient safety in its healthcare facilities"

Dr. Ali Abdulkarim Al Obaidli, Clinical Affairs Director for SEHA emphasized: "The International Patient Safety goals represent proactive strategies to reduce risk of medical error and reflect good clinical practices proposed by leading patient safety experts. Incorporating these tools into our day to day activity is a significant step. Furthermore, the organizations taking responsibility of using the goals also need to foster an atmosphere of continuous compliance and improvement."

Mr. Clyde Eder , the Operations Management Director at SEHA explained that "The Joint Commission International (JCI) Accreditation program is designed to create a culture of safety and quality within a healthcare facility and ensure that it strives to continually improve patient care processes and results for patients. Several SEHA healthcare facilities including Tawam (inclusive of Tawam Dental Clinics), Al Rahba, Al Corniche and Sheikh Khalifa Medical City (Medical Pavilion, Surgical Pavilion, and the Outpatient Specialty Clinics) have all successfully achieved the tough JCI accreditation standards."

Dr. Shakil Ahmad, Program Chair for the Event and Sr. Clinical Quality Specialist for SEHA said, "It will accommodate 140 plus participants from SEHA facilities & other healthcare agencies. There will be presentations by International speakers including Ashraf Ismail, MD, MPH, CPHQ, Managing Director of JCI Middle East. It will also encourage local knowledge sharing by SEHA representatives on initiatives which have demonstrated real improvements in patient safety prescribed by the six International Patient Safety Goals. Additionally, there will be workshops which will involve hands on action planning as well as posters exhibition."

One of SEHA's hospitals in Al Ain, Tawam Hospital, in affiliation with John Hopkins Medicine, a JCI Accredited institution, recently celebrated the success of their one year implementation of the new patient safety program called 'Comprehensive Unit based Safety Program' (CUSP). The program was focused on establishing a culture of safety by bridging the gaps between hospital leadership, department managers and frontline caregivers and is an outgrowth of the International Patient Safety Goal program.