SOUTH AFRICA – The Council for Health Service Accreditation of Southern Africa (Cohsasa) has awarded 9 healthcare facilities with four-year accreditation.
Cohsasa is a not-for-profit company (NPC) based in Cape Town. Health facilities that have been accredited by Cohsasa meet extremely rigorous international standards, signifying that patients attending these facilities can expect to receive safe, quality care.
The Mediclinic Group in South Africa has put its best foot forward with one of the highest number ever of its facilities receiving four-year accreditation awards at a recent Board Meeting of Cohsasa.
A total of eight Mediclinic hospitals, scattered throughout South Africa and Namibia, achieved the highest accolade: a four-year accreditation.
The Mediclinic hospitals include the Mediclinic Geneva in George, Southern Cape; Mediclinic Kimberley in North Cape; Mediclinic Limpopo in Polokwane, Limpopo; Mediclinic Panorama in Cape Town, Mediclinic Pietermaritzburg in Pietermaritzburg, Mediclinic Vergelegen inSomerset West, Cape Town; Mediclinic Welkom in Free State and Mediclinic Windhoek in Namibia.
The other hospital was Surgeon Specialist Eye Clinic in Edenvale, Gauteng.
A Cohsasa full accreditation award means that a healthcare facility has entered a demanding quality improvement programme and has been assessed against and complied with standards recognised by the International Society for Quality in Health Care External Evaluation Association (ISQua-EEA), the global body overseeing accreditation and quality improvement programmes in healthcare organisations in 70 countries around the world.
Cohsasa itself is accredited by the IEEA as are its standards. Cohsasa is the only accrediting body for healthcare facilities in Sub-Saharan Africa recognised by the IEEA.
Healthcare facilities that initially enter the programme and meet standards are awarded two-year accreditations and as the journey in quality improvement continues, awards of longer duration are given.
A four-year accreditation award from the Council should signal to patients that a facility has sustained an excellent level of standards over a significant period of time.
All facilities that receive an accreditation award must undergo an interim survey halfway through the period to ensure that standards are being maintained.
In December last year, four African hospitals, two Kenyan hospitals and two South African hospitals, received accreditation awards from COHSASA.
Kenya’s Avenue Parklands Hospital and Metropolitan Hospital achieved two-year awards while South Africa’s Mediclinic Heart Hospital and Mediclinic Stellenbosch received a three years’ full accreditation.
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