Accreditation: Supporting the Delivery of Health and Social Care
June 9th 2015 marked the 8th anniversary of World Accreditation Day, a global initiative jointly established by the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) and International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) to raise awareness of the importance of accreditation-related activities. The theme for this year focused on the support accreditation provides in the delivery of health and social care. As in previous years, the day was celebrated across the world with the hosting of major national events, seminars, and press and media coverage, to communicate the value of accreditation to government, regulators and leaders of the business community.
During the celebrations in Kenya, information was shared with stakeholders in the health sector on the benefits of accreditation as an assurance mechanism for the delivery of quality, and safe service. Related presentations focused on:
- Point of Care Testing : the challenges faced in provision of this service.
- Management of System Certification in the Health Sector : the plans the Kenyan Ministry of Health has in place to deliver quality improvement.
- The Role of Accreditation in the Health Sector
- Accreditation of Hospital Certifiers : development under the Kenya Quality Model for Health
Issues highlighted during the presentations and subsequent plenary discussions included accuracy and reliability of outcomes and test results, measures to prevent wrong diagnoses, the balance between quality and cost effectiveness, the safety of patients and staff, and the accreditation of hospital certifiers in Kenya.
Key note addresses delivered by the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture, and Ministry of Industrialization and Enterprise Development highlighted the role of regulators in ensuring that all health and social care service providers deliver safe, effective, compassionate, and high quality care. Of note is that fact that it was agreed that accreditation provides regulators with a reliable monitoring tool to support continuous improvement and that it provides objective proof that the service operates competently and safely and that outcomes can be relied upon.
Following detailed discussions, the Plenary resolved that:
- KENAS invite the Parliamentary Health Committee, and the Health and Biotechnology Committee of the Council of Governors to educate them on the importance of accreditation and its impact on the economy.
- Consideration be given to making accreditation mandatory for the health sector through the regulatory arms of Government. World Accreditation Day provides an excellent opportunity for the accreditation community to extend its influence and demonstrate how accreditation can be applied to a wide variety of assessment, approval and evaluation tasks that can be used to address a wide range of regulatory requirements.
