JCI re-accredits Tawam Hospital and commends its quality of healthcare provision

Tawam Hospital was one of the UAE's first public hospitals to receive JCI accreditation in 2006 and this renewal recognises efforts and initiatives to implement latest global advances in patient safety and education.

Commenting on the JCI re-accreditation, Steven A. Matarelli, Ph.D., Chief Operating Officer of Tawam Hospital said: "We are delighted to have received the re-accreditation after a thorough evaluation of our patient care processes and advances in patient safety and education. JCI accreditation enhances our reputation as a hospital dedicated to clinical excellence and recognises our commitment to improve the quality of patient care and services. Our pursuit of quality in healthcare is based on our strong commitment to a multidisciplinary approach. More importantly, our people recognise that excellence and quality improvement is a never-ending journey."

Surveyors from JCI conducted an audit of the hospital's services and documentation processes in November this year and commended the quality of Tawam's healthcare provision based on robust processes. They were particularly impressed by its successful programmes focused on Patient Safety and Health and Patient Education.

To improve patient safety, Tawam Hospital overcame cultural and professional barriers born of the fact that its patient care staff come from more than 60 different nations. This fact produced differences in patient care approach and created issues such as provider hierarchies that limited the opportunities for teamwork, a reluctance or fear of acknowledging medical errors and putting procedures in place to reduce such errors, and effective communications across the employee population. The hospital's leadership realized that the best way forward was to build a culture of safety and rolled out the Johns Hopkins Medicine Comprehensive Unit based Safety Programme (CUSP) in 2008. CUSP is a six-step patient safety programme that begins and ends with staff assessments of safety in the workplace. It creates a culture that targets system failures and not individual fault. In order encourage staff to report safety incidents, the 'Best Catch Awards' were instituted for the best near-miss caught.

"Tawam's leadership realizes that building a culture of safety is a continuous process and it requires patience, perseverance, commitment and engagement," added Matarelli.

Tawam Hospital has established its own process to develop and review new health and patient education tools to support verbal teaching and improve patient compliance. By September 2012, 868 tools had been developed in-house. Community Health Education Lectures are increasingly being facilitated to promote health and improve wellbeing as well as enhance the prevention and early detection of diseases among people living in the community. A total of 78 such lectures have helped reached out to thousands of people in the community since the beginning of 2011.

Among other key initiatives, 45 health awareness events have been facilitated by the hospital that involved 10,562 people from the community. As an Abu Dhabi first, two health education TV channels have been established and continuously disseminate patient heath information in Arabic and English via closed circuit TV network within the hospital. Health education and promotion messages are also disseminated via social media such as the hospital's Facebook and Twitter pages and through BlackBerry messenger. The hospital blood donation campaign on Facebook this year brought in 1,014 people to give blood.

Created in 1994 and working in collaboration with the WHO, JCI has a presence in more than 90 countries. It works with healthcare organizations, governments, and international advocates to promote rigorous standards of care and provide solutions for achieving peak performance. It helps healthcare organizations in three ways: accreditation, education, and advisory services.

Tawam Hospital is part of the SEHA Health System owned and operated by Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (SEHA) which is responsible for the curative activities of all the public hospitals and clinics of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.