Accreditation of Health Care Facilities
What is accreditation?
Accreditation is a process in which an entity, separate and distinct from the hospital, assesses the hospital to determine if it meets a set of standards designed to improve quality and safety of care
Why accreditation?
The primary reasons for implementing an accreditation system in Rwanda are:
Standardizing systems and practices
Setting evidence-based standards for key processes and clinical practices to improve quality and safety of care and services.
Institutionalization of a culture of quality and safety
Using quality management, continuous quality improvement methods and the accreditation process to bring about changes in practice that will improve the quality of care for patients.
Measurement of performance
Implementing a structured system for measuring compliance to standards with the aim of improving outcomes.
Improved accountability
Holding health care organizations accountable to regulatory or other agencies, such as professional bodies, government, patient groups and society at large, and normalizing their behaviors to protect the interests of patients and other stakeholders
Accreditation steps
Achievements 2018 - 2023
- Accreditation progress assessment in 15 public hospitals: 2018/2019
- Accreditation progress assessment in 28 public hospitals (2019)
- Accreditation baseline survey of 6 Polyclinics and one Private hospital (February 2021).
- Accreditation progress assessment of 44 public hospitals (May-August 2021)
- Accreditation baseline surveys for 14 Polyclinics and 3 private hospitals (September 2021)
- Accreditation baseline survey of 28 Health Centers (November – December 2021).
- Accreditation progress assessment of 45 public hospitals and Accreditation baseline assessment for 2 hospitals (March – July 2022)
- Accreditation baseline assessment for 50 health centers (Aug.-Sept 2022)
- Accreditation baseline assessment for 4 hospitals (3 specialized orthopedic hospitals and one district hospital) Jan 2023
- Accreditation progress assessment for 51 districts, level-2 teaching hospitals, and Referral hospitals in January – April 2023.