Hemas Hospitals first with intl. accreditation in Sri Lanka

By Shezna Shums

Hemas Hospitals recently enjoyed the honour of receiving an international accreditation from the prestigious Australian Council on Healthcare Standard International (ACHSI), which is Australia’s leading healthcare accreditation provider delivering accreditation and quality improvement programmes throughout the world.

This prestigious accreditation that applies to both Hemas Hospitals facilities in Wattala and Galle makes it the first chain of healthcare facilities to receive such an international accreditation in Sri Lanka.

An accreditation has been defined as ‘a self-assessment and external peer assessment process used by health care organisations to accurately assess their level of performance in relation to established standards and to implement ways to continuously improve.’

Accreditation systems are structured so as to provide objective measures for the external evaluation of quality and quality management. At the heart of these schemes is a list of standards which, ideally, serve to assess evaluate in a systematic and comprehensive way the standards of professional performance in a hospital.

The ceremonial awarding of the ACHSI accreditation certificate was held at the Cinnamon Lakeside yesterday (2 June). Invitees included Deputy Minister of Health Lalith Dissanayake, Executive Director ACHSI Desmond Yen, Surveyor ACHSI Hari Sivadas, Manager International Business ACHSI David Miller and Secretary Ministry of Health Dr. Ravindra Ruberu.

Other invitees included Chairman of Hemas Holdings PLC Dr. Desmond Yen, Deshamanya Lalith De Mel, Country Representative for WHO Dr. Rustom Mehta, Australian High Commission to Sri Lanka Kathy Klugman, Hemas Hospitals Chairman Murtaza Esufally and Director Medical Services at Hemas Hospitals Dr. Aruna Rabel also expressed their thoughts at this achievement.

This significant accreditation was awarded to Hemas Hospitals following a comprehensive survey of both hospitals in Wattala and Galle conducted in March this year.

The accreditation considers every aspect of the healthcare facility and bases its assessment on not only the standards set but on the processes that lie within the hospital as well, thus ensuring the highest quality is met across clinical, corporate and support functions to satisfy the many criteria set by ACHSI.

The survey spanned clinical, support and corporate functions and includes criteria like continuity of care, access, appropriateness, effectiveness, safety, consumer participation and acceptability, risk management, HR management, application of information technology and information management, leadership and strategic initiatives in healthcare and continuous quality improvement.

This extraordinary feat not only highlights Hemas Hospitals as the first in the country to receive international recognition, but more importantly signifies the dawn of a new era in healthcare standards in Sri Lanka.

Head of Medical Services Dr. Samanthi De Silva proudly announced this international accreditation and said that it would greatly benefit customers by better and higher quality service and care from Hemas Hospitals.

Chairman Hemas Hospitals Murtaza Esufally added that Hemas was taking quality health services to different parts of the country at reasonable rates.

Hemas Hospitals with its two new establishments in Galle and Wattala ensure high quality care and services for the people living in these areas of the island while other places will be looked at in the future as well.

Esufally appealed to the Ministry of Health and other health officials in Sri Lanka to create a good accreditation body in Sri Lanka which will help hospitals improve and provide a better service to their customers.

“There is a rising middle class who want quality healthcare and it is important because healthcare issues spans dimensions of race, religion, ethnicity, work and other factors,” he said.

Gampaha saw Hemas Hospitals build its US$ 15 million, 100 bed hospital that is now preferred by the people in Gampaha and the neighbouring areas.

Director Medical Services Dr. Anura Rabel added that Sri Lanka was recognised as having the best health care services system in the South Asian region and the Sri Lankan health care system was on par with other developing countries. Chairman Hemas Holdings PLC Lalith De Mel added that as Hemas was the first hospital to be provided with an international accreditation, they had set the standards and raised the bar for other hospitals to reach.

Adding that having such an accreditation was important in order to attract people from around the world to come here for medical treatment, he said: “This has enhanced our image and opens the doors for medical tourism, which is a growing industry around the world.”

“People will come here to receive world class treatment and this is a huge growth area,” added the Chairman.

WHO Country Representative Dr. R. Mehta highlighted that medical tourism was now called value added travel in the industry because the world was becoming a village and more globalised.

“High quality medical care with safety is needed and Hemas’ vision for some years has now culminated with where it stands today,” he concluded.