Aga Khan Hospital scoops international award

HILDA MHAGAMA

THE Aga Khan Hospital has been awarded accreditation for good quality by the Joint Commission International (JCI).

JCI is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to continuously improving, providing and sustaining safety and good quality medical services. The accreditation means that the Aga Khan Hospital has achieved a level of quality and patient service that is equal to the best hospitals in the world.

In Africa, there are nine such hospitals and Aga Khan Hospital is the first hospital in Tanzania to achieve JCI accreditation. Chief Medical Officer, Professor Muhammad Kambi, said it was a great achievement and urged the hospital to keep working hard in delivering health services as it would bring positive impact on the overall healthcare in the country.

Prof Kambi also appreciated the offer made by the Aga Khan Hospital to work with the government on improving safety and quality standards across all hospitals countrywide.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for the Aga Khan Hospital in Dar es Salaam, Mr Sulaiman Shahabuddin, said the Aga Khan Development Network was working with all stakeholders, including the government, to improve the quality of health care in their health facilities and a number of government hospitals.

Mr Shahabuddin said that partnering with the government was among the reasons for their health facility receiving the ISO 9001: 2008 certification. “Accreditation is a longterm and difficult process, over the last two years, we have introduced methods and systems that raise the quality of patient care to the level required by JCI,” he noted.

He added, “I am extremely proud of our team here at Aga Khan Hospital following our successful review and accreditation award, without their consistent hard work and adherence to the standards set by JCI every day with every patient we would not be able to join this exclusive grouping of hospitals around the world.”

Agencies of the Aga Khan Development Network provide health services in Tanzania to nearly 400,000 people a year through its hospital, health centres, community health programmes and medical training programmes.

In order to constantly push accredited hospitals to even higher standards of patient care, JCI issues new and upgraded standards that Aga Khan Hospital is required to embrace and institute and although the review happens just once every three years, the staff and doctors at the hospital is constantly evolving to ensure that patients are given the highest standard of care for best possible outcomes.