3rd November, 2023
By Kazeem Ugbodaga
The Lagos State Health Facility Monitoring and Accreditation Agency (HEFAMAA) has begun the review of standards for Acute Care Hospitals in Lagos to get international accreditation.
In light of this, stakeholders in the health sector gathered at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) in Ikeja on Thursday to brainstorm on how to get international accreditation.
The gathering theme is “Stakeholder Engagement: Accreditation Standards Review for Acute Care Hospitals.”
The Executive Secretary, HEFAMAA, Dr. Abiola Idowu, while speaking said the agency is reviewing the standards for Acute Care Hospitals.
“We have in this room experts, medical practitioners and others to improve standards in Acute Care Hospitals; to improve standards acceptable to Lagos and Nigeria so that we are not working out of context.
“The essence of having standards is to comply with set regulations that will be reviewed by external people, like external peer review that will ensure improvement in the quality of care and improve health outcomes,” Idowu said.
“For this our standards, it is going to be targeted at Acute Care Hospitals, for example, diagnostic will be involved, laboratory service will be looked at, patient care, patient safety, we are going to be looking at the structures, how they are carrying out their processes. When they say hospitals, it is not one particular grade of hospital. All the services that they carried out in the hospital are included in the standards,” she added.
On how this will help to fight quackery, Idowu explained that the accreditation was just a step higher than people complying with just the minimum basis.
“It is a sign of excellence, so in carrying out accreditation, the hospitals are putting themselves out to say we have attained the minimum, we want you to come and mark us as being excellent and so in terms of stamping out quackery, what we are targeting at is to ensure there is licensing of all health facilities in the state, we look at the structure of the facilities, the basic equipment, we also look at the staffing, we want to ensure there is adequate medical staffing in the facility, so in doing that, we are ensuring that every medical personnel working in health facilities are actually qualified to participate,” she added.
On the expectations for the next one year, the HEFAMAA boss said “Our expectation according to the accreditation is that by this time next year, we would have progressed because it is a process and we are about halfway.
“By this time next year, we are looking at the possibility that we would have submitted this set of standards through the international body, which is the International Society for Quality Healthcare to accredit the standards, we are hoping that these standards would have been accredited. The whole exercise is for international recognition so that we are able to beat our chest boldly to say we are recognized internationally.
Dr. Olujimi Coker, Chief Executive Officer, Habevit Healthcare and Chairman, SQHN Committee, in his paper on “HEFAMAA Hospitals Accreditation Standards in Development – Stakeholders Engagement,” said around one in 10 hospitalized patients experience harm, with at least 50% preventability.
He said in a study on the frequency and preventability of adverse events, across 26 low- and middle-income countries, the rate of adverse events was around 8%, saying that 83% of these could have been prevented and 30% led to death.
“An estimated 421 million hospitalizations take place in the world annually. Approximately 42.7 million adverse events occur in patients during those hospitalizations. Approximately two-thirds of all adverse events happen in low- and middle-income countries, contributing to 2.6 million deaths annually due to unsafe care.
“It is estimated that the cost of harm associated with the loss of life or permanent disability, which results in lost capacity and productivity of the affected patients and families, amounts to trillions of US dollars every year.
“Furthermore, the psychological cost to the patient and their family, associated with losing a loved one or coping with a permanent disability, is significant though more difficult to measure,” he said.
He said the purpose of regulation is to provide assurance that minimally acceptable standards are achieved, to improve performance and quality and to provide accountability for levels of performance (individual & organisation) and value for money.
Coker listed the benefits of accreditation to include identifying strengths and gaps in programmes and processes; promoting communication and staff empowerment across organizations, improving overall professional development, knowledge and competencies in systematic ways; fostering a culture of quality and safety; improving organizational learning and staff effectiveness; reducing variation, improve efficiency and reduce cost; improving patient outcomes; mitigating risks and liability costs and raising community confidence in the services provided by the health care organization.
Speaking, Dr. Ajibike Oyewunmi, said in developed countries, there are standards to state what quality of care is needed in different parts of the world.
“Those parts of the world already have standards so that hospitals and care providers will aspire to these healthcare standards, so we are really excited that Lagos State at this time has decided that they want to push it forward.
“Setting standards means that patients know when they get to the hospital, what kind of care they get and healthcare providers know how to deliver this healthcare to the people in such a way that it is safe, timely and effective care, care that is respectful.
“We are hopeful that if we are able to improve care in the hospitals, patients will be drawn to the hospitals,” Oyewunmi said.