Seminar is part of four-day celebration, which began on November 1, 2009, across all DHA hospitals and specialty centres.

Theme of this year's Quality week is- 'Patient Safety, Our Priority.'

Seminar highlights importance of performance and risk management programs to safeguard patient interests.

Dubai, November 4, 2009: Keeping patient safety as the focus of this year's healthcare quality week, the Dubai Health Authority organized a day-long seminar to highlight the importance of patient safety in healthcare.

The seminar is part of a four-day Quality Week Celebration, across all DHA hospitals and speciality centres.  The event organised by the Hospital services sector at the DHA, is under the theme "Patient Safety, Our Priority,"

Dr Mohammad Al Olama, CEO of the Hospital Services Sector initiated this celebration to promote the importance of achieving improved patient care outcomes and healthcare delivery systems across all DHA hospitals.

Dr Al Olama said, "At DHA, patient safety is one of our core principles and quality, risk management and performance management are integral aspects which help us ensure that patient safety remains our priority.

"The DHA is working to ensure that we further strengthen and develop our risk management processes as well as our performance management initiatives. We are in the process of developing a unified risk management process for all the DHA hospitals."

Mr. Zakaria Al Attal , Director of Quality & Performance Department,  Hospital Services Sector, DHA said, " Quality and performance management initiatives play an integral role to ensure that patient safety is always maintained. The DHA is in the process of introducing an electronic system for identifying, prioritizing and managing risk. In addition to this, we at the DHA are constantly investing in training our healthcare practitioners about patient safety initiatives." 

Ms. Ann Edmondson, Risk Manager, Hospital Services Sector at the DHA said that in recent times a lot of countries are buying into the theories of risk management as it is proved to improve patient care significantly. "This is a concept that has gained momentum in recent years and is embedded firmly in many countries around the world."

She said that DHA's unified risk management initiative will enable like-for-like comparison of high, medium and low risk throughout the DHA.

Moreover, the DHA is also working with the Institute of Healthcare Improvement Patient Safety Bundles.

Dr Zakaria said, "Bundles are a structured way of improving the process of care and patient outcomes. We will identify bundles relevant to our risk profile and introduce them."

He said this one of the steps the DHA is the process of introducing to strengthen patient safety.

The organizers of  the four day event on patient safety are The organisers of this event are Dr. Abdul Aziz Abdulla AlZarooni, Assistant Head of Quality Office, Rashid Hospital, Dr. Saba Naseem Khan Quality Coordinator, Rashid Hospital, Ms Nujood A.Aziz Al Khloofi, Communication Manager, Hospital Services Sector, Ms. Merlyn Patricia Dsouza, Quality Coordinator, Al Wasl Hospital, Ms. Usha Mary Varkwy, Quality & Accreditation Officer, Dubai Hospital, Dr. Amer Mohamed Al Zarooni Acting Director, Airport Medical Center and Ms. Samah Abdel Hamid Darwazeh, Head of Office, Thalassemia Center

-Ends-

The DHA:
The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) has been empowered to set policy and strategy for health, and to assure the application of that health policy and strategy. The DHA leads an integrated approach across the spectrum of health, anticipating our future needs and being responsive to users. It will stimulate growth and innovation in the health market, ensuring value for money and quality of services through effective regulation.

The new Dubai Health Authority (DHA) structure will ensure that health services are better positioned to meet the demand for better healthcare services in the future. The DHA will work to:

  • Provide a Health Strategy for Dubai that will meet the needs of the predicted growth and change in population.

  • Ensure Public Health is protected and quality of life improved.

  • Ensure partnership between public and private health service providers, bringing together the best international experience to ensure we deliver the best health system possible.

  • Achieve international accreditation of healthcare services delivered across the Emirate by ensuring world-class quality and standards of healthcare.

  • Ensure effective regulation and licensing across the Dubai Health Sector guaranteeing the quality of health services provided.

  • Increase the transparency and accountability of the healthcare system.

  • Drive efficiency so that funding is spent on the most effective healthcare for those who need it.

  • Improve accessibility to the healthcare system and sustainability for the future.

  • Deliver the best training and education opportunities for Dubai healthcare practitioners.

© Press Release 2009