Quality Assurance Management Unit
The Quality Assurance Management programme opened doors at University Teaching Hospital of Butare (CHUB) in July 2012 as Quality Assurance and accreditation Department with only one staff. It was reinforced in December 2014 with another staff then upgraded to Quality Assurance Management Unity in September 2016 with the introduction of CHU’s new structure, where the unit received a Director and two Continuous Quality Improvement Officer (CQIO), soon to receive a Risk Management officer.
The mission and objectives of the Quality Assurance service is the development of quality services in CHUB through teaching quality management in health services, health and safety environment for employee, patients and visitors; initiating quality improvement projects to improve the services delivery; to monitor and educate about the measurements of quality. The evaluation of all processes will be concluded by the problem solving and decision making for future improvement and change of CHUB. All of these to support the hospital to achieve its mission which is to provide quality health care according to the international standards, train health professionals, contribute to the development of human resources, conduct outstanding research and provide technical support to the health system.
Since 2006, The University Teaching Hospital of Butare (CHUB) was recommended to start the Accreditation program under the Council of Health Care Accreditation for Southern Africa (COHSASA) https://cohsasa.co.za/ standards, to help the hospital to become accredited internationally. During this journey the HQS Consulting http://www.hqs.co.za/ , a consulting firm on Quality Management and Improvement in Healthcare and other Service Organizations helped the Hospital in facilitation in order to meet the target which is the Accreditation. So far the CHUB rid a considerable progress from the score of 29% in 2007 in the first baseline survey conducted by COHSASA to 80% during external survey conducted in October 2020. Now the Hospital Awarded an Entrance level Certificate
The Quality Assurance Management unit has a purpose to help CHUB to improve Quality of care given at Hospital basing on international standards.
The quality assurance unit is responsible for assessing and addressing needs for Quality Improvement and led the hospital towards accreditation; the implementation and evaluation of the Quality Assurance Plan under the Authority of the Director General of the Hospital, in conjunction with the Information Management and Quality Improvement Committee which provides ongoing operational leadership of continuous quality improvement activities at CHUB.
Aim of the unit:
Coordinates and implements the operation of quality assurance and Accreditation, and utilization review units within the hospital.
Goals and Objectives
The Quality Improvement Committee identifies and defines goals and specific objectives to be accomplished each year. Goals include quality and patient safety as well as training of hospital staff. The following are the goals for CHUB Quality Improvement Program and the specific objectives for accomplishing these goals:
- Co-coordinating all Quality Assurance and Accreditation activities;
- Identifying Quality Assurance activities to mitigate project risks;
- Identifying new risks and set mitigation strategies;
- Progressing the Quality Assurance surveillance plan and agree to change;
- Making recommendations regarding the Project's documented Quality Strategy and its maintenance and/or configuration management;
- Agreeing the responsibilities and timescales for Quality Assurance activities;
- Establishing a communication strategy for Quality Assurance issues;
- Updating members on Project issues;
- Reviewing applicable quality requirements and associated procedures and establish a common understanding;
- Evaluating surveillance reports and progressing Quality Deficiency Reports;
- Reviewing and evaluating all corrective actions;
Quality assurance Management units lead all improvements activities mainly focusing on Cross Cutting services such as:
- Policies and Procedures,
- Safety Health Environment Risk Management (SHERM) service,
- Access to care and Patient’s Right,
- Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) service,
- Resuscitation service,
- Continuous quality improvement service,
- Occupational health services