The Khorfakkan Hospital in the UAE achieves JCI accreditation
The accreditation of the facility, as part of the Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP), places UAE as a global leader in terms of the number of internationally accredited healthcare facilities
The Khorfakkan Hospital located in Sharjah, UAE, has received Joint Commission International (JCI) accreditation, demonstrating its excellence in terms of clinical quality, patient safety, and competence of the medical and administrative staff.
“A vigorous hybrid assessment process was conducted by an expert team, including field visits to the hospital to assess the health services provided in accordance with the international requirements and standards. Also, another assessment was conducted remotely from the US using cutting-edge audio-visual devices,” MoHAP said in a statement.
UAE to accredit all healthcare facilities by 2021
Back in 2017, MoHAP asserted that all healthcare facilities in the UAE would have international accreditation from recognised medical bodies either from the US, Canada or Australia by 2021. At that time, nearly 70 per cent of the necessary international accreditation had been reached.
“We want a system that upholds the patient’s rights as well as upholds best practices in healthcare and augments the reputation of the country. The cost of healthcare in this country is going up,” Dr Ameen Hussain Al Amiri, Assistant Undersecretary of Public Health Policy and Licensing Sector at MoHAP, said at the time. “The healthcare sector is expanding in the UAE with more public-private partnerships, international joint ventures coming up and along with the economic cost of health care, we want the quality and standards to be steadily and progressively maintained to match the best in the world.”
New accreditation reaffirms international confidence in UAE health services
Now, with the latest accreditations of Khorfakkan Hospital and Al Qassimi Hospital (both in the UAE emirate of Sharjah), and following the news that by December 2019, 10 hospitals and 28 primary healthcare centres under the management of SEHA had successfully achieved JCI accreditation, the region is advancing steadily closer to achieving its ambitious goal.
Commenting on the accreditation of Khorfakkan Hospital, Dr Youssif Al Serkal, Director-General of the Emirates Health Services Corporation, said: “This accreditation strengthens the gains of the health sector, reinforces the competitiveness of the country’s health facilities, and reaffirms the international confidence in the health services in the UAE, which is committed to implementing requirements of clinical quality, hospital governance, and innovation in health information data.”