Dubai first to launch healthcare specific edition of excellence model, says UK healthcare expert

Speaking at a workshop organised by the Department of Economic Development (DED) Dr Stahr asserted that while countries in Europe had adapted the Excellence model devised by European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) to suit the healthcare sector, Dubai had taken the lead in designing a health-specific edition of the excellence model, which could be used by all healthcare related organisations to benchmark and review their performance.

More than 100 professionals, experts and representatives from the healthcare sector attended the workshop including officials from the Department of Health and medical Services (DOHMS), Deans of medical colleges, professionals from government and private hospitals, quality professionals working in the healthcare field and students from medical and pharmaceutical colleges.

"Healthcare is one of the most difficult sectors in which to monitor and measure performance, because of the complexities inherent within the sector and organisations across the world seem to face similar problems," said Dr, Stahr. "It is important to develop patient-focused systems which underline the concept of holistic improvement. In order to achieve this, individuals, systems and processes have to work together to achieve a pre-designed result. The healthcare specific edition of the DQA excellence model seeks to achieve this objective by keeping in mind the fundamental concepts of excellence," he added.

"Quality management becomes extremely crucial to healthcare organisations because healthcare products have critical effects on the health and well-being of people. Organisations dealing in such products and services cannot afford to make mistakes," said Mr. Essa Kazim, Co-ordinator General of Dubai Quality Award and Director General of Dubai Financial Market in his welcome address. "We are introducing the new healthcare guide for the Dubai Quality Award to enable health related organisations to continuously enhance and upgrade their performance. This guide hopes to encourage your participation in the journey to excellence by providing you with a roadmap which is based on the fundamental concepts of excellence," he added.

The fundamental concepts include Leadership & Constancy of Purpose, Management by Processes & Facts, People Development & Involvement, Continuous Learning, Improvement & Innovation, Partnership Development, Corporate Social Responsibility, Results Orientation and Customer Focus. It is worth noting that the DQA Secretariat recently published a booklet explaining the fundamental concepts of excellence.