The UAE is renowned for being at the forefront of world-class healthcare services. Among the seven emirates, Dubai, in particular, has set high benchmark in healthcare standards. The prolific emirate has some of the best health centres in the UAE, in addition to the brightest medical minds from around the world. It is also one of the hubs in medicine and scientific study in the MENA region. With a healthcare system that is envious by the world, Dubai has an impressive track record in patient care and healthcare provisions throughout its system.
The robust and equally efficient healthcare system of Dubai is overseen by the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) that ensures that all health centres are abiding by the regulations and doing their best to deliver quality services to patients.
As part of its commitment towards enhancing the healthcare services and ensuring compliance to the international best practices which will ultimately reflect on better provision of healthcare services in Dubai, DHA last year issued a mandate that all Day Surgical Centres (DSC) are required to obtain international accreditation from DHA approved accrediting agencies, which includes the American Association for Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgery Facilities (Quad A), which has been actively supporting facilities and centres across Dubai to improve their quality and safety standards in line with the accreditation standards.
The Quad A is looking to expand its mission of accrediting surgery facilities in the UAE to improve patient safety, especially after the mandate was passed from the DHA, directing all Day Surgery Centres to get accredited by an internationally recognized accrediting agency. The Quad A has set-up enhanced infrastructure to partner with all the UAE health regulators and to help accommodate more surveys and facilities.
It has been 40 years since the Quad A has been promoting safe healthcare practices. It commenced this mission as a not-for-profit institution in the UAE in 2016, with the first-ever accreditation of Hasan Surgery FZ LLC – a Day Surgery Centre located in Dubai Healthcare City, under the regulation of the Dubai Healthcare City Authority.
Having achieved Quad A accreditation voluntarily in 2016, Hasan Surgery was well equipped to efficiently and responsibly handle the unanticipated challenges with regards to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Hasan Ali, Medical Director and Founder, acknowledges that the Quad A accreditation has left a positive impact on the facility, its practice and upheld its reputation as a reliable care centre.
The centre was ready to resume the activities almost as soon as permitted to open by the government and did not have to implement the new protocols, since most of the newly implemented protocols were already in place due to the focus on patient safety and quality as part of the primary requirements in the accreditation program by the Quad A. Hasan Surgery has realized tremendous operational benefit through accreditation and has adopted a culture that focuses on clinical safety.
The Quad A strives for the highest standards in excellence for its facilities by regularly updating its requirements for patient safety and quality of care while requiring facilities to continually self-assess and evolve.
The tools and processes that are focused around safety, efficiency and quality allow facilities to identify areas of possible improvement and set and implement actionable steps to enhance facility performance across the quality measures. The result is better care for patients and a higher standard of healthcare in the city.
