| WHCA Hospitals Receive 3 Year Accreditation Award |
|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 9, 2009 Wellington Health Care Alliance Hospitals Receive Accreditation Award Groves Memorial Community Hospital (GMCH) in Centre Wellington and the North Wellington Health Care Corporation (NWHC) (consisting of Louise Marshall Hospital in Mount Forest and Palmerston and District Hospital in Palmerston) each recently received three year Accreditation certification from Accreditation Canada (formerly Canadian Council on Health Services Accreditation). The three year Accreditation Status is the maximum term awarded to any organization. Jerome Quenneville, Alliance President and CEO said, "This achievement recognizes the commitment of the staff, physicians, board and volunteers to providing quality care and service in our community. The accreditation process involves self-assessment by hospital quality improvement teams and site visits by two teams of Accreditation Canada surveyors in September 2008. Our positive results reflect excellence in rural health care service delivery."The site visits included a review of documentation, team interviews, facility tours and focus group meetings with various stakeholders. Tracers have been introduced as part of the on-site survey. A tracer involves surveyors, accompanied by a staff person, following the path of a patient or an administrative process to gather evidence about an organization's quality and safety of care services. It often includes discussions with staff and/or patients. The accreditation process allows Accreditation Canada and the hospitals to evaluate the organizations' services by comparing them to nationally accepted standards. Accreditation provides a reference point on which the organizations can focus quality improvement efforts. GMCH and NWHC were both commended for forming the Alliance in order to maximize human resource sharing and joint program planning. In addition the Alliance hospitals were commended for their quality and risk program including patient safety initiatives and development of the balanced scorecard reporting process. GMCH and NWHC were recognized for the implementation of Meditech software to support patient care. Both corporations received high praise from their community partners. NWHC was commended for Clinical Services Planning completed in 2008 and the Master Program with its draft recommendations for future service delivery. GMCH was commended for continued progress toward realizing a new hospital for the community. Quenneville added, "Although we are very pleased with this acknowledgement of our successes, we continue to look for opportunities to improve. Currently we are tightening our medication reconciliation processes to minimize the risk of medication errors and we are implementing an enhanced falls prevention program. We are further developing our corporate performance indicators to support our Balanced Scorecard measurement model." Janet Vallery, GMCH Board Chair, congratulated all participants on this "very significant achievement". Patti-Jo McLellan Shaw, NWHC Board Chair, commended staff, volunteers and physicians for their excellent collaboration and dedication. Both Chairs thanked their board colleagues for their ongoing excellence in leadership and commitment to the organizations. -30- Contact Information: Jerome Quenneville Chief Executive Officer Wellington Health Care Alliance (519) 843-2010 x 200 (519) 323-3333 x 2258 (519) 343-2030 x 4258 WHCA Hospitals Receive Accreditation Award  Download this press release (pdf) - January 9, 2009 |
| < Prev |
|---|
