| Danial Norjidi |
THE achievement of “gold standard” Joint Commission International (JCI) accreditation by Pengkalan Batu Health Centre marks a significant and historic milestone for the Ministry of Health (MoH) and healthcare in Brunei Darussalam.
Dr Hajah Lailawati binti Haji Jumat, the Head of Quality and Accreditation, MoH speaking on the significance of the achievement, said the JCI Accreditation is the “gold standard” for all healthcare facilities that give priority to the provision of care and safety of patients at the highest level.
“It’s a gold seal of approval from an international accreditation body, and the standards that any organisation has to comply to are global standards,” she told the Bulletin.
Dr Hajah Lailawati said; “It has been scientifically proven that the best practices, processes and standards (under JCI Accreditation) actually do produce results in terms of improvement of services as well as increasing patients’ safety. That’s why it’s important.
“When you actually achieve this, it means you are on par with other health centres internationally. It has set a high benchmark.”
Dr Hajah Norafizan binti Haji Hazipin, a Senior Medical Officer of the MoH, who is in charge of the Pengkalan Batu Health Centre, said: “We developed our team and had to read through the standards.
“Each of them has different measurable elements. Out of the 112 standards, there were 456 measurable elements we had to achieve.”
She said it was a challenge, but one they were able to conquer “because of the teamwork we had, as well as the dedication of the staff”.
“We had to learn new things because the standards in the JCI Accreditation; some are quite new, some we already have but we needed to enhance and improve so that they were more efficient, more organised and structured,” Dr Hajah Norafizan said.
The Pengkalan Batu Health Centre became the first government health facility to attain accreditation from the JCI, marking a significant milestone for the Ministry of Health. – MINISTRY OF HEALTH
“So we as the working committee actually had to teach our staff, restructure our management and also our organisation. We had to teach them new processes, and had to be revised for the process to be efficiently implemented,” she said.
“We had to do a lot of in-house training, with which we had to do a lot of competency assessments as well so that the skills they are required to operate and do certain clinical things are actually up to date.”
She highlighted that the main targets of their quality improvements were patients’ safety.
“The processes that we do are now more structured and systematic compared to before, and it’s actually helping the staff become more efficient and safeguard them in delivering safe patient care,” added Dr Hajah Norafizan.
Dr Hajah Lailawati said the centre built upon what it already had, saying, “to get accreditation you have to be more structured and have certain processes that we have to follow.
“So we just improved upon what we had already.”
The Pengkalan Batu Health Centre recently became the first government health facility to attain accreditation from the JCI, marking a significant milestone for the MoH.
The MoH announced the achievement at a press conference on March 3.
JCI is an organisation that is well-known and recognised globally as a leader in international healthcare accreditation, which serves to enhance the safety and quality of healthcare in the international community and helps the performance of healthcare delivery.
JCI Accreditation also supports the MoH’s core values, namely: customer-focused; dynamic through continuously improving quality; untied towards a common purpose; and providing excellent service.
For further information, members of the public can contact the Quality and Accreditation Office, MoH at 2381640 during office hours or email to quality.accreditation@moh.gov.bn.
The public can also contact Darussalam line 123 for any further enquiries.
JCI set standards and requirements are approved and certified by the International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua).
The assessment process for JCI accreditation is dedicated to fostering a culture of safety and quality in care centres and provides assurance that the standards, processes and training are benchmarked at the highest international level.
The JCI Accreditation assessment for Pengkalan Batu Health Centre took place over five days, from February 20 to 25, 2017.
The assessment was done according to the JCI Accreditation Standards specifically for primary care centres.
The standards used are global standards that must be observed by every health organisation in every country, and are focused on the patients and promote continuous improvement in accordance with the local environment and legal framework of the respective country.
The five standards used for evaluation are: community involvement and integration in health care; patient-centred services; organisation and delivery of services; improving the quality and safety; and international patient safety goals.
The Pengkalan Batu Health Centre has complied with the JCI standards that have been set, and have implemented plans, policies and procedures to ensure the improvement and continuous systematic increase of quality, and this includes all services at the health centre.
Its improvement activities include monitoring and collection of data for high-risk processes; improvement of processes clinical work and operations; continuous capacity development of staff through training, education and competency assessment; promoting a culture that focuses on patient safety and quality improvement among staff; providing a safe environment for patients; and active involvement of the local community in the planning and implementation of health promotion activities.
The Pengkalan Batu Health Centre has also prepared action plans to further improve the quality of care and services delivery through the collection, analysis and monitoring of data and statistics.
To maintain the Accreditation at Pengkalan Batu Health Centre, the JCI and the Quality and Accreditation Office, MoH will continue to monitor compliance with the standards throughout the three-year accreditation cycle through set monitoring activities.
With the accreditation, it is intended for Pengkalan Batu Health Centre to become a benchmark for other health centres and other hospitals in the country to achieve international standards in healthcare services.
In this regard, a number of government health centres and hospitals across the country have been identified to carry out the JCI accreditation process.
JCI Accreditation fully supports the aspirations of the MoH to improve the health and welfare of Brunei’s citizens through the delivery of a comprehensive and high-quality healthcare system.
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