Industry News

HASA AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE - 2008 FINALISTS

14 October 2008

In Categories: Industry News , Industry News > General , Medic-Legal

THE WINNER OF THE 2008 HASA EXCELLENCE AWARDS will be announced at the prestigious Health Worker Awards to be held on 28 November 2008 in Johannesburg. The event is hosted by the minister of health. 

EXCELLENCE and the superiority of healthcare delivery within a hospital make a significant investment in establishing and enhancing working relationships with the hospital’s various publics especially staff and patients. There is a strong relationship between the level of involvement with local communities and support of staff and business success.

HASA is so conscious of this correlation, its members have been working hard at improving the quality of hospital-based community projects that goes beyond the call of duty in pursuit of excellence and access to quality healthcare. As a result, the past year has been a busy but exciting one for the private hospital industry.

The HASA Awards of Excellence remains the pinnacle of such hard work and unsolicited service to local community. This premier awards ceremony, part of the ministerial Health Worker Awards, are fast becoming a mascot of the quality and good will associated with private hospitals in SA.

Once again HASA is so pleased with the superfluity of entries received over the past 12 months. Putting together a list of finalists was very tricky. Private hospitals just keep on raising the bar when it comes to introducing new medical technology to this country. Despite inspiring would-be-patients’ confidence to the country’s healthcare systems, such innovation significantly reduces the time spent recovering.

These are not just thingamabobs but medical innovation designed to drastically increase surgical success and allow the diagnosis of illnesses at the earliest possible stage. Events of the last month with the panic that was sparked by the emergence of the Arenavirus lend credence to the call that says SA must be ever-ready to ensure swift identification of such illnesses. We do not have to rely on international health organisations to identify exotic diseases especially at the countdown to the FIFA Soccer World Cup in 2010.

The Awards are also a testimony of members' strict adherence to the HASA CODE of high quality, excellence and safety of care anticipated, rightly so, by every healthcare user visiting our facilities. These factors of care are typically a prominent part of HASA and, as demonstrated by the survival of our member hospitals, make a lot of business sense because stock follows a successful business. These, together with the Marketing the Industry Category, are some of the reasons SA is slowly becoming a healthcare destination for international patients looking for affordable world-class health care.

My favourite category remains involvement with local community. Private hospitals are part of communities. They need to engage their respective communities in activities of the hospitals. The competition is usually tight in this segment displaying HASA'S seriousness in easing access to hospitals. This past year, most of the innovative tools used by hospitals to involve communities include training, visibility campaigns and after care projects. This helps members of the public to become aware of the services of a hospital and the opportunities they can exploit for their own economic upliftment and careers.

Previous winners make a comeback as HASA recognises the difficulty in sustaining a project. Excellence should not be a flash in the pan designed to drum up media kudos but also a doggedly and sustainable mission that piggy backs on its success.
 
THE 2008 FINALISTS
Promoting equity or keeping healthcare affordable
The Walter Sisulu Paediatric Cardiac Centre for Africa
THESE WSPCCA, part of the Sunninghill Hospital, boosts equity in private healthcare by, firstly, providing successful treatment for all children with heart disease on the African continent, especially those who would otherwise not have access to medical/surgical intervention. Secondly, they offer training and skills updates for the doctors on the African continent. And thirdly, they participate in international research on the plight of cardiac children in underdeveloped third world countries, in our case, Africa. All these is made possible through The Walter Sisulu Paediatric Healthcare Foundation which raises money for the project to ensure these children get medical help free of charge.

The Pretoria Eye Institute
THE PRETORIA Eye Institute had sustained this enormous outreach project to demonstrate, once again, its expertise and social responsibility to underprivileged people. This community project reached its peak during the Eye Care Awareness Week on 8 to 12 October 2007. It comprised training workshop for School Health Nurses on September 2007; screening of 75 children; free cataract surgery for 408 blind patients who were unable to afford the surgery. These patients were selected from waiting lists at government hospitals in Pretoria, Witbank and other rural areas in Mpumalanga. The patients from Mpumalanga were transported and accommodated with meals at the expense of the institute and its donors.

Ivolvement in and/or service to local community
Netcare Unitas
INVOLVEMENT IN local community is not just something fashionable for hospitals but one of SAs biggest hospitals Unitas has seen the light. Their involvement with its immediate community has seen the hospital organising staff-knitted blankets for the needy as part of their Lighthouse Community Kitchen Ministries project involvement.  The Lighthouse Community Kitchen Ministries feeds the community of Diepsloot. There are two kitchens in Diepsloot, one at the centre feeding 300 + individuals a day, and the other at the school feeds 1 000 + scholars daily. Netcare North East Catering managers assist with this project every Friday and its also responsible for donations and the preparation and serving of meals.

Milnerton Medi-clinic
ANOTHER ONGOING project is The Community Intervention Centre (“CIC”) which has provided FREE trauma and crisis intervention service for the Blaauwberg community for seven years. They currently handle up to 200 trauma cases a month. They work in full co-operation with the South African Police Service, providing them with trauma support either on-site or at their trauma rooms. The cases include rape, suicide, domestic violence, attempted suicide, murder, armed robbery, family crisis, death, and severe medical trauma and child abuse. An example of cases includes stillbirths, motor vehicle accidents, trauma after operations, depression, resuscitations, hijackings, deaths and cash in transit heists victims.

Marketing the industry
Netcare Unitas Hospital 
EARLY IN 2008 leading gastroenterologists from Europe and South Africa gathered at Unitas Hospital in Tshwane to perform 30 live procedures. The event, which saw 70 South African specialists from public and private hospitals and 30 foreign specialists sharing new techniques, technology and skills, formed part of the Inaugural Endoscopy Congress hosted by the South African Gastroenterology Society (SAGES). Unitas promoted the private hospital industry and SAs medical excellence to both the world and the country. Participating specialists were able to witness the latest techniques, performed with leading edge technology, while views and experiences were freely shared with colleagues from several countries including the Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy and South Africa.

Establishing world-class medical services or technology
Ethekwini Hospital and Heart Centre
IN SEPTEMBER 2007, EHHC became the first hospital to sign a "One GE Healthcare" contract in South Africa, putting them firmly at the forefront of cardiology related technology. This state-of-the-art Information Technology allows the diagnosis of the disease at the earliest possible stage. A fully integrated hospital where information is freely available to those who require it but secure has been the vision of EHHC since inception.  The digital hospital concept requires that all systems from theatre booking, radiology images, test results and all administration are linked. The level of integration of the hospital is such that a doctor in his room will be able to view and interpret radiology images as they are being performed. At the bedside, portable computers on wheels (COWs) will replace paper charts as the preferred means of monitoring a patient’s progress. Doctors and nursing staff will be accompanied on rounds by a COW which will be used to digitally record patient details. Prescriptions will be entered onto the COW and will print almost instantaneously at the pharmacy counter. By providing a rapid response to patient’s needs, Ethekwini Hospital will strive to deliver more efficient services which will, in turn, reduce hospital stays and result in  better care for patients.

Netcare Unitas Hospital
A WHOLE new world is opened up for patients suffering from neuro-surgical and vascular diseases with the establishment of a state-of-the-art neuro and vascular unit at Unitas in the heart of Centurion. The unit established in October 2007 provides a dedicated facility where conventional open surgery could be combined with the most advanced endo-vascular techniques. Gone are the days when the only option for aneurysms, blood vessel blockages, vascular malformations and many other conditions was major invasive surgery, hours of deep anaesthesia, days in intensive care, and weeks of recovery. Patients will benefit from minimally invasive surgery by leaving the hospital much sooner and return to normal function more quickly. This new unit at Unitas compares with the best that the world has to offer and is a first for SA.

Public/Private Sector co-operation
Netcare Kroon Hospital
THE HOSPITAL purchased a new Somaton Emotion CT Scanner, and it is not only for the benefit of private hospital patients. The public hospital also benefit as they make use of the radiology department in an example of how the public and private healthcare sectors can work together. Patients are transported with their ambulance to the radiology department and made comfortable before their x-rays get taken.