Update from Peter Lachman

I have been doing a lot of travel to Africa recently, on behalf of ISQua. During February I visited Ghana, South Africa and Mozambique, before returning to Dublin for the bi-annual ISQua Board face-to-face meeting and retreat.

The start of my travels was to Accra in Ghana for the 1st African Forum for Quality Improvement in Healthcare, set up by Dr Leroy Edozien, an obstetrician from Manchester with a yearning to improve healthcare in Africa.

 

I was honoured to give the keynote presentation after the formal opening by the Hon. Kingsley Aboagye Gyedu, Deputy Minister of Health, Ghana. I followed this up with training workshops on ‘Making Safety a Reality: Practical Solutions for Africa’. The programme was well crafted with a lot of expertise and much to discuss. A full report of this conference can be found in this newsletter.

 

From Ghana, I moved on to Durban in South Africa for IHI’s 1st African Forum on Quality and Safety in Healthcare. The aim of this forum was to address the unique challenges faced by the healthcare community living and working in Africa.

 

I took part in the pre-Conference intensive on the science of improvement. The session lead and chair, Lauren De Kock (auruminstitute.org), took the interesting approach of asking Maureen Tshabalala to present the framework for improvement and Dr Anthony Reed and Dr Rolene Wagner to give their presentations on the improvement work they have done; and then asked me to provide a constructive critique, used Deming’s Lenses of Profound Knowledge, to draw examples from what they presented and to further teach about the theory. 

 

This required me to be very attentive to the details on the day to the learning from the great projects at Somerset Hospital in Cape Town and the systems-wide change at Frere Hospital in East London. The session was a success with a lot of discussion and questions afterwards.

 

The IHI Forum also gave us the opportunity to host the first face-to-face meeting of ISQua’s African Community of Practice since its inauguration in October 2016. There was an excellent discussion between the members on disseminating best practices on quality and safety; how to make information accessible so people can view – and the need to follow through; encouraging and promoting African improvement successes; how to network and learn from different countries and much more. The session also attracted and welcomed new members to the Community.
 

In Mozambique in our joint programme with Irish HSE, Irish Embassy and Irish Aid I went to view the wonderful results of the numerous teams in the improvement collaborative which we have supported. I want to highlight one in particular. At the José Macao hospital in Maputo, they have introduced the Portuguese version of the Clinical Excellence Commission’s Between the Flags system (https://www.cec.health.nsw.gov.au/patient-safety-programs/adult-patient-safety/between-the-flags) and have seen a reduction in the mortality rate on the test ward by an astonishing 60% since its introduction!

 

This is an amazing achievement for the teams involved. ISQua began our involvement in Mozambique in August 2016 with a programme of QI training to develop capacity in quality improvement and patient safety methodology, since then over 20 QI initiatives have come to fruition.

 

I returned to the ISQua mid-year Board meeting which was held in Dublin from 4th – 6th March, amid two feet of snow! The bad weather had a detrimental effect on some of our Board members travelling to Dublin but thanks to video-conferencing we managed to get everyone involved. Wendy discusses the outcome of the retreat in her report and I will give detailed feedback on the outcome of the Board and our new strategic strategies in the next newsletter.

 

I would like to mention two awards that were presented at the start of the board meeting. Deirdre Burke (ISQua’s Corporate Services Coordinator) and Sinead McArdle (ISQua’s Communication Officer) where both presented with a Long Service Award by Wendy Nicklin in appreciation of their 10 years with ISQua. I am sure you will join me in thanking them for their continuous support and dedication to ISQua.

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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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