King Faisal Hospital (KFH), Kigali, has been awarded pre-accreditation by the Council for Health Service Accreditation of Southern Africa (COHSASA), a major step towards the final accreditation level expected to take place in October this year.

Speaking about the accreditation process, Dr. David Nzanira, one of the officials involved in the accreditation process, noted that ever since the accreditation process began 18 months ago, the hospital staff has shown compliance in various services hence this achievement.

"At the entry level, King Faisal Hospital scored only 41 percent but after a short period of time, the staff has joined efforts to improve and at pre-accreditation level, you have 86 percent which implies that only 4 percent is required to attain the minimum accreditation mark of 90 percent,” Nzanira said.

"No other hospital has received this level of compliance in only 18 months.” The Acting Chief Executive Officer of KFH, Dr. Juliet Mbabazi, said that the purpose of the accreditation is to improve the quality of care according to agreed international standards, stimulate integration and management of health services as well as to provide better education and consultation.

"This achievement means a lot in line with improvement of services. Accreditation is all about identifying whether we are up to standards with the rest of the world in availing health services,” she said.

"We are glad that we have attained this, and our hospital is the first in the region to achieve it. We intend to aim even higher because we believe that it will take more hard work to achieve the remaining percentage.”

Mbabazi explained that despite efforts to score high, the hospital still lacks some very vital equipment adding that this impacts negatively on the performance as regards the accreditation procedure.

"One of the main reasons why we may not have scored well in some criteria is because we lack equipment. Through the continuous efforts of meeting required level of compliance however, patient care has improved and customer care will soon be better as well,” she assured.

Dr. Bonaventure Nzeyimana, an official in the Ministry of Health, thanked the staff of the hospital for their commitment, adding that once the hospital acquires full accreditation, the same process will be rolled out in other hospitals.

"About four percent remains to attain full accreditation and there is a strong zeal to get to this level within the stipulated period of five months. We still have few doctors, but efforts are being geared towards improving this.

"Our goal is to turn this hospital into a regional centre of medical excellence.”

According to COHSASA, once full accreditation is given, KFH will be recognized as a health facility that guarantees quality services by complying with national and international standards for quality health services.

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