A delegation consisting of myself, Cliff Hughes Immediate Past President, Stephen Clark Chair of the IEEA Accreditation Council and Elaine O’ Connor Head of the International Accreditation Programme and Strategic Partnerships will attend and present at the Conference on International Hospital Accreditation – Key to Quality and Safety from the 18^th – 20^th of February in Shenzhen, China.

We are now reaching a critical stage in the delivery of healthcare. Patient Safety is now a central component of the delivery of healthcare – and we now need to set ambitious goals to eliminate harm. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done. Worldwide initiatives have had variable success mainly because it is difficult to achieve standardisation without a change in the way we work. Patient safety needs to become a social movement where there is a groundswell of change and eventually safety becomes the way we do work.

Dr. Peter Pronovost is perhaps best known for the development and promotion of one of the simplest of management tools: a checklist for preventing hospital-acquired infections.

Safe practices and clinical excellence are no longer the exclusive determinants of quality in healthcare. 

Absent are the days where a doctor needs to be in the same room as the patient to provide a medical consultation. 

I was so excited when I arrived in Geneve on October 20, 2012. It was the first time for me at ISQua's Conference and I was able to made it thanks to the support of the ISQua/WHO Scholarship and the National Cardiology Institute from Brazil where I work.

The field of social care is defined differently across the globe. It is very large and diverse. In the early days of the special interest group we are concentrating our thinking on older citizens living in institutions.