Upholding global standards

Medcare Hospitals and Medical Centres takes pride in being quality healthcare providers in accordance with the calibre found across the world

In the last 12 months, the healthcare sector has grown massively. With such growth, comes responsibility. Hospitals and healthcare institutions are attending to several patients every single day for various ailments, consultations, surgeries and more. Frontline staff have been trained to handle this influx and at the same time have made significant changes to better the treatment and service to patients.

In this regard, Medcare Hospitals and Medical Centres, one of the UAE's well-established healthcare networks and a top JCI-accredited healthcare provider, caters to patients' needs and well-being through an internationally-certified team of experts and state-of-the-art facilities. Medcare Hospital Dubai and Medcare Orthopaedics and Spine Hospital (MOSH) have also won the prestigious Dubai Quality Award as per the EFQM business excellence framework. While celebrating Patient Safety Awareness Week, an annual recognition event intended to encourage care providers to learn more about safety in the field, Medcare brings to light the many ways it has brought its care team together to significantly improve the patient experience.

Implementing international frameworks

The Institute of Medicine has created a framework for characterising the quality of care across six dimensions, known by its acronym, STEEEP - care that is safe, timely, effective, efficient, ?equitable, and patient-centred. Medcare has these dimensions embedded in its system.

To begin with, at Medcare safety of the patients is integral. No patient should ever be harmed by healthcare, only improved. Every individual caregiver at Medcare is responsible to work their level best to keep their patients safe.

Second, the sick should not be made to wait an unintended amount of time. Medcare provides its world-class amenities and care at the right time for the ailing, along with accurate information and enough time to heal. Prompt attention benefits both the patient and the caregiver.

Third, the needs of patients have to be met accurately and effectively. It should match science, with neither underuse nor overuse of the best available techniques. At Medcare, patients are treated with the right medicine and provided with the required equipment for their ailments.

Fourth, Medcare is extremely efficient, constantly seeking to reduce the waste and hence the cost - of supplies, equipment, space, capital, ideas, time, and opportunities.

Fifth, Medcare provides treatment to every single patient who comes its way. The benefits of its high-quality care reach all who come to any of the hospitals or medical centres.

Lastly, Medcare's priority is the patient and their treatment is patient-centred. Every individual patient's culture, social context, and specific needs are respected, and he/she plays an active role in making decisions about his/her own care. That concept is especially vital today, as more people require chronic rather than acute care.

There are several ways that Medcare has integrated these principles into its system throughout its hospitals and medical centres.

• Supplements