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As we work together to create exemplary healthcare experiences for patients and families every time, our voluntary participation in accreditation demonstrates our commitment to quality and accountability to our staff, physicians, volunteers, patients and community.
It's one of the most effective ways for hospitals and health organizations to regularly and consistently examine and improve the quality of their services.
Accreditation is a thorough, proven system to ensure that the programs and services we deliver are up to national and international standards of excellence. By evaluating our quality of care and service, we are able to measure our clinical and operational performance - giving us a clear picture of our strengths and areas to be improved.
Bluewater Health achieved 97.8% of Accreditation Canada’s standards of excellence in quality of care and patient safety, which resulted in the hospital receiving accreditation status for 2011-2015.
President and CEO Sue Denomy said, “We are thrilled by the positive comments from the Accreditation Canada survey team and proud they recognized Bluewater Health’s leadership, staff commitment and organization-wide quest for improvement. Our participation in Accreditation is a means of providing assurance to patients, their families, community partners, and other healthcare organizations…it validates and certifies the quality of our programs and services.”
Accreditation Canada is an independent organization that provides healthcare organizations with an external peer review to assess quality of services based on national standards of excellence. Accreditation is one of the best assurances to patients and public that hospitals are achieving safety and quality. It is a voluntary process to assess and benchmark the quality of services, with patient safety as its cornerstone.
As part of the Accreditation process and during a four-day visit in April 2011, the survey team reviewed and evaluated Bluewater Health’s programs and services through dialogue with staff, physicians, volunteers, patients and families, as well as with focus groups representing leadership, governance and community partners. Information was gathered on topics such as work life/workforce, culture of safety, infection prevention and control, medication management and communication.
In all, Bluewater Health met or exceeded 1866 national standards with includes 34 Required Organizational Practices. The assessment recognized the significant combined efforts the hospital team has made in improving quality, patient safety and work life over the past three years since the last Accreditation. Highlights include:
- Bluewater Health is seen as a high-performing organization - one in which staff, physicians, volunteers are focused on patient and family-centered care and feel a great sense of ownership and pride.
- A high level of commitment to patient safety is evidenced throughout the organization. Examples include daily safety briefings and the application of the Surgical Safety Checklist.
- Quality improvement initiatives such as Releasing Time to Care© are improving the patient experience and staff quality of work life.
- Expanding cancer care services, implementation of best practices in Endoscopy, the opening of the Pat Mailloux Eye Centre and the Intensivist-led closed Intensive Care Unit are contributing to a high quality of patient care.
- The new building and enhanced physical environment is not only exceptionally beautiful but highly functional and state-of-the-art.
Accreditation Canada also provides the opportunity to recognize organizations for leading practices that demonstrate innovation and creativity and have a positive impact on services or outcomes. The Releasing Time to Care© project was highlighted as an exemplary practice at Bluewater Health.Bluewater Health will continue to submit further evidence to Accreditation Canada to ensure compliance with required organizational practices and key criteria. Other improvements will be addressed over the next three years in preparation for the next survey in 2015.
Click here to read the letter we received from Accreditation Canada noting our accreditation decision. Click here to read the survey team's executive summary of their visit to Bluewater Health.
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