19 Mar 2019

Selebi Phikwe Hospital has become the third health facility in the country to be accreditation to the Council for Health Service Accreditation of Southern Africa (COHSASA).

The hospital joins Mahalapye and Scottish Livingstone hospitals in the accreditation.

COHSASA is a non-profit making organisation based in South Africa which assists health care facilities to meet and maintain standards and thereby provide quality services.

The hospital’s quality officer Ms Basetsana Mooketsi said in an interview that the hospital was accredited in February after a three-year process as per the Ministry of Health and Wellness requirement.

Ms Mooketsi said accreditation of health facilities was meant to improve services.

The accreditation, she explained, meant that all units in the hospital had to adhere to the set policy procedures and where problems were encountered, they were expected to come up with solutions to ensure patients always received quality health services.

Ms Mooketsi said  accreditation had helped the hospital address a lot of problems including delays in the provision  of medical attention as well as shortage of drugs.

She said shortage of drugs could only occur in instances where the supplier delayed  in  providing service explaining that the hospital pharmaceutical unit was bound by the set standards to make orders well in advance.

“We have process and policy procedures that govern us and we are expected to implement them and measure their outcome,” she said.

The procedures, she said, had improved customer satisfaction according to the surveys conducted from time to time.

In addition she said after consultation, patients were given customer feedback forms to fill adding that the system had helped the hospital identify problems and came up with solutions to address them.

“When there is a problem we identify the root cause and we immediately close the gap,” she said.

COHSASA offers services to meet individual client needs so that health care facilities are equipped for the long-term to meet the safety and quality health needs of the population they serve in the most efficient and cost effective manner possible.

She expressed gratitude to the hospital team saying it was staff hard work and commitment that earned the hospital the accreditation certificate.

The 65-bed health facility was established in 1975 and would be accredited again after two years.

“We are striving to maintain this achievement as such we conduct audits to monitor the level of adherence to health standards,” she said adding that the accreditation was evidence based therefore there were quality indicators for every unit.

Meanwhile the government would construct a new 120-bed hospital in Selebi Phikwe in the 2019/2020 financial year. ENDS