According to Dr. Giles Lanteigne, Executive Vice President and CEO, UAE is one of the most important developing markets for international accreditation because of the country’s demographic and geographic identity. “Healthcare operators and providers in this region have shown a tremendous commitment to improving their standards through internal benchmarking,” says Dr. Lanteigne. “The alignment of Middle East healthcare standards with internationally-recognized best practices is still a work in progress, but the momentum is definitely there.”
During this year’s Arab Health, Accreditation Canada selected Dubai as the venue for its global launch of the new Qmentum International accreditation program, which was released on Jan. 28 during a public inauguration ceremony held at Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre. Attended by a number of government as well as private entities including Dubai Health Authority and Canadian Consul General of Dubai, the fully-automated online program was met with positive enthusiasm from operators and regulators.
“When people talk about improving healthcare systems, the focus is often only on clinical teams,” comments Zakarya Abdalla Nusairat, Director of Quality & Corporate Performance at Dubai Health Authority. “Involving patients in gauging satisfaction is relatively new in this region, and accreditation changes this kind of mentality. That is very important for public healthcare institutions in UAE looking to make sustainable changes within their operations.”
With more than 50 years of experience in the industry, Accreditation Canada played an active role in several of this year’s congress seminars and was also part of the judging panel at the Arab Health Achievement and Innovation Awards 2010. The non-profit organization is also the only one of its kind to have worked in the Middle East for over 10 years in countries such as United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, among others.
