Abu Dhabi: In a bid to improve the quality of health-care services in Abu Dhabi emirate, a new evaluation system for hospitals was launched in the capital today (September 10).
The Jawda system, implemented by the emirate’s health sector regulator, the Health Authority Abu Dhabi (Haad), will assess facilities based on specified quality indicators, and the evaluations will eventually be published for the use of residents.
“We are continuously seeking different ways to improve the quality of care for residents, and we expect that the Jawda system will help [in this process]. In addition to our own indicators of quality, patient satisfaction with health-care services will also be considered,” said Dr Mugheer Al Khaili, chairman of the Health Authority Abu Dhabi.
According to officials at the launch, quality indicators for hospitals cover four main areas of evaluation: patient safety, effectiveness of care, timeliness of service delivery and level of focus on patient needs. These will be analysed by collecting data on mortality ratios, patient experience, waiting times, readmission rates and medical errors, among others.
A total of 45 different public and private hospitals have already been contacted by the Haad to provide the relevant data sets, and Haad officials are also putting together relevant information that the authority already has access to, explained Dr Maha Barakat, director- general at the Haad.
“These assessment areas will gradually be expanded to cover more performance aspects. In future, the Jawda system, which has been implemented for pharmacies since 2011, will be extended to all hospitals and, eventually, to clinics as well,” she told Gulf News.
Asked whether the evaluations would be shared with residents, Dr Barakat said that this was one of the main goals of the system, although the date of initial publication of the results has not yet been decided.
“By publishing these evaluations, which will be conducted based on international standards, we hope to increase consumer confidence in the emirate’s health-care system. However, we need to validate the information we collect in order to ensure that Jawda provides a strong incentive for health-care providers to improve their standards of care,” Dr Maha said.
Hospitals and facilities under Jawda must supply data in the specified areas to the Haad every three months, and these will be verified by inspectors. Every one to two years, these inspectors will also carry out independent assessments, and they will also immediately visit a health-care facility if they notice any worrying trends in the quarterly reports it furnishes.
Evaluations are expected to be published annually, although officials said they still need to decide whether these are presented to the public in the form of rankings or performance groups.
