South Africa - COHSASA celebrates ten years

Citation

(2006), "South Africa - COHSASA celebrates ten years", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 19 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhcqa.2006.06219gab.008

South Africa - COHSASA celebrates ten years

COHSASA celebrates ten years

Keywords: Quality assessment, Continuous improvement, Health services

COHSASA has been working in the field of quality improvement in South African healthcare facilities for over 10 years. Part of the Proudly South African movement COHSASA has achieved global recognition and is one of only a handful of internationally accredited accrediting bodies recognised by the International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua).

Since its inception, COHSASA has focused on providing South African solutions for South African problems. This has resulted in the development of facilitated accreditation programmes for South African Healthcare facilities that enable specific identification of areas of strength and deficiency. Through a process of ongoing training, monitoring and evaluation, skills transfer to local staff enables facilities to become accredited as centres of excellence for healthcare provision.

Because of the legacies of the past, many facilities in South Africa face significant obstacles in provision of health care, including problems with finance, physical infrastructure, medication and consumables supply, as well as staffing shortages. To assist facilities to overcome these deficiencies and acting in response to local needs, COHSASA developed

the graded accreditation process – unique in the world – that allows all facilities in the country to access world-class accreditation processes that are tailored to their specific requirements. Responses to these programmes over the last decade have repeatedly demonstrated the value of this local approach in improving the delivery of quality health care to all our citizens.

In the past ten years of operation, with COHSASA’s work in 595 facilities in both the public and private sector, the following milestones have been reached:

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  In 1994, the Pilot Accreditation Programme for South African Health Services was launched as a research and development programme in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Stellenbosch under the directorship of Dr Stuart Whittaker. The programme grew rapidly and, in October 1995, COHSASA was registered as a not-for-gain organisation.

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  The first hospital to be accredited in South Africa – the Medi-Clinic Group’s Louis Leipoldt Hospital in Bellville – was issued with a two year COHSASA accreditation certificate on June 1, 1995.

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  The first public sector hospital to be accredited – Addington Hospital in Durban – was awarded a two-year accreditation on November 21, 1997.

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  COHSASA signed the first major contract to accredit 29 public sector hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal on November 12, 1998.

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  In May 2002, COHSASA’s standards were recognised by the International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua) as meeting its principles.

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  In September 2002 COHSASA was accredited by ISQua for four years. This is formal, worldwide recognition that COHSASA meets agreed international standards specifically developed and tested for healthcare external evaluation bodies.

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  In August 2004 COHSASA became the first organisation in the world to undertake the development of standards for the evaluation and management of HIV and AIDS within a district and across the continuum of care – from prevention and VCT to terminal care.

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  On December 17, 2004 COHSASA became an accredited member of the Proudly South African campaign.

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  In January 2005 COHSASA assisted the World Health Organisation (WHO) to launch its World Alliance for Patient Safety in Durban, which aims to conduct studies around the world to determine the nature and the extent of adverse events in developing countries.

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  In ten years COHSASA has provided valuable input for global health bodies: it formed part of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations task team to develop healthcare standards; is part of the editorial team of the ISQua Journal; and regularly provides input for the World Health Organisation on issues of patient safety, quality assurance and accreditation.

For further information: www.cohsasa.co.za/html/accreditation.htm