Transforming & Navigating Healthcare Quality & Safety into the Future: Reflections from AfIHQSA

ISQua were delighted to host Dr Gilbert Buckle and Elom Otchi who presented a fantastic live webinar with a Q&A session on Transforming & Navigating Healthcare Quality & Safety into the Future: Reflections from AfIHQSA. This session was an ISQua African Community of Practice meeting which was also made available as an open webinar.

ISQua were delighted to host Dr Gilbert Buckle and Elom Otchi who presented a fantastic live webinar with a Q&A session on Transforming & Navigating Healthcare Quality & Safety into the Future: Reflections from AfIHQSA. This session was an ISQua African Community of Practice meeting which was also made available as an open webinar.
 

Webinar title
Transforming & Navigating Healthcare Quality & Safety into the Future: Reflections from AfIHQSA
 

Description
Quality in healthcare is treating our patients the way we would want to be treated and achieving care outcomes that we would want for ourselves if the roles were turned around. There have been three global publications in 2018 that have revealed the sub-optimal nature of quality of care and patient safety globally but significantly in lower-middle-income countries (LMIC). The significant increase in the efforts and investments in the health sector has not resulted in a proportional increase in quality of care outcomes. Many countries are yet to heed to the call of redesigning their health systems to make quality and patient safety the primary goal of service delivery. Efforts towards Universal Health Coverage will not be meaningful without ensuring that the care and care outcomes desired are of the highest quality. Country health systems and the global health community must take a break and consider how the principles and concepts of quality and patient safety can be embedded at all levels of healthcare.
 
This webinar offers theoretical and practical expertise about how healthcare quality and safety could be transformed and navigated into the future as part of the quality universal health coverage agenda. Gilbert and Elom will share some insights and reflections of health systems transformation and strategies that can be employed at improving care outcomes. This webinar will also share some thoughts espoused by speakers at the recently jointly organized Healthcare Quality and Safety Summit by the Africa Institute of Healthcare Quality Safety and Accreditation and the International Society of Healthcare (ISQua).

 
Learning objectives 

  • To understand the key principles of health systems transformation.
  • To understand and implement strategies that can transform and navigate healthcare quality and safety across all the levels of the health system.

 
Presenters
Gilbert Buckle, MB. CHB, MPH, ODCC
Gilbert is a Public Health Physician and Consultant in Health Systems Strengthening & Healthcare Quality, with over 22 years of experience (in both the public and private sectors). He is an accomplished and resourceful executive, with experience in designing healthcare programs and leading healthcare systems and organisations to enhanced performance. He is adept at strengthening health systems and healthcare organisations, with a focus on improving the quality of health outcomes, in resource-limited environments. His additional competencies include critical thinking, analysis, & strategic planning; Health Systems Strengthening & Optimization; Healthcare Quality Improvement Initiatives; Leadership Coaching & Capacity Development; and Organisational System Transformations. Gilbert is the Executive Director of the Africa Institute of Healthcare Quality Safety & Accreditation (AfIHQSA). He is a certified executive coach with the International Coach Federation as well as an Organizational Development Certified Consultant. Gilbert is an inaugural/founding member of the ISQUA Academy of Quality and Safety in Healthcare (IAQS).

Elom Otchi, FISQua, MPH, MA (Org. Devt.), PGD, BSc
Elom is a National and International Consultant in Organizational Development and Healthcare Quality & Patient Safety. He is a conference speaker and been on discussion panels of several quality & patient safety conferences. He has served as the National Consultant on Quality Improvement (QI) for UNICEF. A role in which he supported twenty-four (24) health facilities (including a regional hospital) in implementing the Mother-Baby Friendly Health Facility Initiative (MBFHI) in the Upper East Region of Ghana. He was also the International Consultant for the WHO Country office in Sierra Leone in supporting the Ministry of Health & Sanitation setup national quality of care structures, develop training manuals and quality of care policy and strategy. He also built the capacity of various cadres to lead the quality improvement program at various levels of the health system of the country. Elom is the Technical Director of the Africa Institute of Healthcare Quality Safety & Accreditation (AfIHQSA). He is also an Expert of the International Society of Quality Healthcare (ISQua). Elom is a Fellow of International Society of Quality in Healthcare (ISQua) and a Certified Hospital Surveyor (CHS). He is a member of the WHO Global Learning Laboratory on Quality of Care and Universal Health Coverage. Elom is in the final year of his PhD Program at the School of Public Health (SPH) of the University of Ghana.

Watch the full recording below and share your feedback in the Comments box at the end of the page:


If you’re interested in more virtual events like this and more opportunities to share with and learn from peers across the globe, have a look at ISQua education programmes HERE. 

If you’d like to meet Gilbert and Elom in person and continue this conversation face-to-face, they will both be attending and presenting at the ISQua Conference in Cape Town. More details HERE. 

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Nourhan Kawtharani

Nourhan, a quality and safety coordinator with eight years of experience in ambulatory healthcare in Lebanon, aims to deepen her understanding of the systemic and holistic approach to healthcare through this fellowship.

She aims to identify gaps and develop tailored interventions that address specific contexts rather than applying general solutions. Engaging with diverse professionals and perspectives during this educational journey will expand the application of these concepts across different cultural settings.

Nourhan emphasizes the importance of promoting a culture of continuous learning and improvement within healthcare institutions, considering it a vital leadership responsibility to integrate quality and safety initiatives into the organizational culture.

Nourhan's commitment to patient safety and quality management includes sourcing practical resources and transforming insights into actionable knowledge to drive continued progress in healthcare practices and outcomes.

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Elom Otchi

Elom is passionate about improving quality of care and patient safety outcomes.

In view of this, he has had the opportunity to work in various capacities with various organisations including AfIHQSA, WHO, UNICEF and others undertaking research, supporting the development of national quality policies and strategies, facilitating the establishment of quality governance systems across all the levels of the health sector and building capacity of national and sub-national quality leads/teams to institutionalize the practice of quality and patient safety across the continent.

He has also worked extensively across all levels of care in the health sector of Ghana, including leading the Quality & Patient Safety program in its largest teaching hospital.

I would like to use this Fellowship as a learning platform and an opportunity to acquire the requisite knowledge, skills and competencies to complement ongoing efforts by like-minded individuals and organizations to continuously advance improve the quality and patient safety in Ghana and the continent.

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Stephen Taiye Balogun

Stephen is a Senior Programme Officer at the Institute of Human Virology in Nigeria as well as Country Representative for Health Information for All (HIFA).

Stephen plans to use this opportunity to maximise his impact by championing the cause of patient safety and quality in Nigeria and across Africa.

Stephen says "Quality and safety is a major wheel through which universal healthcare coverage can be achieved. The goal is to be a bridge in the gap between the International Quality Improvement and Patient Safety community and my country to ensure rapid spread, adoption, implementation and practice."

We are looking forward to working with both Stephen and our 2020 winner Rhoda Kalondu over the next year.

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Dr Rhoda Kalondu

Rhoda is the Head of the Patient Safety Unit at Kenyatta Hospital in Nairobi and wants to use this Fellowship to learn how to establish a culture of safety and develop systems for assessment and analysis at her institution, and more widely. As well as this, Rhoda intends to develop and execute an intervention to improve patient safety in Kenyatta National Hospital.

It is one thing to institute measures and processes for improvement, but quite another to change the culture of an environment. Rhoda's ambition to lead others in this change inspired the panel.

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Dr Subhrojyoti Bhowmick

I am an MBBS graduate from Calcutta University with a Gold Medal in Gynecology & Obstetrics.

I have completed M.D in Pharmacology from IPGME& R, Kolkata and have over 12 years of experience in the field of Clinical Research, Pharmacovigilance and Medication management in Hospitals.

I have completed certification in Clinical Research Administration & Project Management from Stanford University, USA and in Patient Safety from Johns Hopkins University, USA.

I am an Assessor for National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Health care providers (NABH), India assessing hospitals for medication safety and clinical quality standards and NABH Assessor for Ethics Committee Accreditation program in India as well.

I serve as the Chairperson, Institutional Ethics Committee of Health Point Hospital, Kolkata and am associated with 2 other Hospital ethics committees as a member.

I finished my Fellowship in Healthcare Quality from the International Society of Quality in Healthcare (ISQua) from Ireland in 2017.

I have published several research articles and have also authored a chapter on “Regulations governing Clinical Trial” in the book “Fundamentals of Clinical Trial & Research”.

I am a peer reviewer for prestigious international journals like the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, CNS Drugs and Drug Safety case reports.

I am the recipient of the UK Seth Oration Award for Best Clinical Pharmacology paper by the Indian Pharmacological Society in 2009 and the “Most promising Healthcare professional in Patient Safety in India” award by the Asian African Chamber of Commerce and Industry in October 2018.

Recently in April 2019, I received the Young Quality Achiever award by Consortium of Accredited Healthcare Organizations (CAHO), India for 2019 for my work in the field of medication safety and clinical research.

I have a keen interest in teaching and am visiting adjunct faculty of Pharmacology at KMC, Mangalore, India and for Healthcare technology at MAKAUT, Kolkata, India.

I was associated with Stanford University School of Medicine, in the USA as a Senior Clinical Research Associate from 2015 to 2017 and have certification in Biostatistics, Evidence-based Medicine and Medical Writing from Stanford University.

Currently, I am working as the Clinical Director of Academics, Medical Quality and Clinical Research at Peerless Hospital and B K Roy Research Centre, Kolkata.

I am very happy and thrilled to receive the prestigious ISQua Lucian Leape Patient safety Fellowship Award for 2019 and I look forward to honing my skills further in the field of healthcare quality and patient safety through my experiences during this fellowship.

I sincerely believe that successful completion of this fellowship will help me evolve as a more confident Patient safety leader in India who in turn can provide significant inputs on policy changes through NABH for the Indian healthcare system.

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