Medical Associates now an internationally accredited hospital
Medical Associates is now an internationally accredited hospital.
Speaking at a press conference to make the announcement on Wednesday Dr Arun Narinesingh, Medical Director of the St Joseph-based institution, said there is no hospital in Trinidad and Tobago or the Caribbean that is internationally accredited.
He explained that some hospitals have departments that are accredited but a complete hospital in the region has not achieved this until now.
He said their accreditation process started in 2018 through an English company called Trent.
He said after visiting, they gave the institution a preliminary result as they needed to do some work to achieve accreditation. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Trent went out of business and handed them over to Temos.
Temos is a member of an international society for quality in health care and a member of the gold standard for accrediting hospitals and healthcare systems.
Narinesingh said the team from Temos visited the hospital in August 2022 for a three-day visit. They gave Medical associates six months to complete all requirements for accreditation.
In February, Medical Associates was awarded full accreditation.
Narinesingh said in order to fulfill the requirements the hospital had to implement several changes such as tightening up infection control that included devising new systems for the sterilisation of theatre equipment, staff, and patient safety, medical care, equipment maintenance, management of foreign patients and departmental audits.
He said in order to maintain accreditation, the hospital has to do an online test every year and the Temos team will visit in three years.
Narinesingh said the process was an expensive one since the many changes meant they needed to hire more people and pay more for services.
He said, however, they have seen the benefits of that investment such as being more attractive to foreigners in the medical tourism space. He said to deal with language barriers, they now have a relationship with embassies to assist with interpretation.
He said the costs to patients have not increased.