Botswana government hospital receives accreditation award
The Selebi-Phikwe Government Hospital, located in the Central District of Botswana has been accredited for a second time for two years. Its first accreditation was from 2019 to 2021. This is a feather in the cap for the Botswana Department of Health and Wellness which has committed itself to a process of accreditation since 2009.
Health facilities that have been accredited by COHSASA meet extremely rigorous international standards, signifying that patients attending these facilities can expect to receive safe, quality care. To see more about accreditation, look at www.cohsasa.co.za
COHSASA is a not-for-profit company (NPC) based in Cape Town. Here is the list of the latest accreditation awards conferred at a recent Board Meeting of COHSASA.
Name of Hospital | Location | Award Given |
Mediclinic Cape Gate | Cape Town, Western Cape | Full Four-Year Accreditation |
Mediclinic Cape Gate Day Clinic | Cape Town, Western Cape | Full Three-Year Accreditation |
Mediclinic Louis Leipoldt | Cape Town, Western Cape | Full Four-Year Accreditation |
Mediclinic Sandton | Johannesburg, Gauteng | Full Four-Year Accreditation |
Northcliff Eye Centre | Johannesburg, Gauteng | Full Three-Year Accreditation |
Reddington Multi-specialist Hospital | Lagos, Nigeria | Full Three-Year Accreditation |
Selebi-Phikwe Government Hospital | Selebi-Phikwe, Botswana | Full Two-Year Accreditation |
A COHSASA full accreditation award means that a healthcare facility has entered a demanding quality improvement programme and has been assessed against and complied with standards recognised by the International Society for Quality in Health Care External Evaluation Association (ISQua-EEA), the global body overseeing accreditation and quality improvement organisations in 70 countries around the world.
COHSASA itself is accredited by the ISQua EEA as are its standards. COHSASA is the only accrediting body for healthcare facilities in Sub-Saharan Africa recognised by the ISQua EEA.
Healthcare facilities that initially enter the programme and meet standards are awarded two-year accreditations and as the journey in quality improvement continues, awards of longer duration are given. A four-year accreditation award from COHSASA should signal to patients that a facility has sustained an excellent level of standards over a significant period of time.
All facilities that receive an accreditation award must undergo an interim survey halfway through the period to ensure that standards are being maintained.

Selebi-Phikwe Town Council PIC: KEOAGILE BONANG
International academy honours Stellenbosch academic

Profession Ethelwynn Stellenberg achieves international recognition
The most prestigious Academy in the field of quality and safety in patient care, The ISQua Academy of Quality and Safety in Health Care (IAQS), has welcomed two new members from Africa – Ethelwynn Stellenberg, Emeritus Associate Professor: Department of Nursing and Midwifery at Stellenbosch University and National Chairperson of the South African Medico-Legal Association. She is also a Board Member of COHSASA. The other new member from the continent of Africa is Lydia Okutoyi, Director of Healthcare Quality, Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi, and Founding President Society for Quality Healthcare Kenya. The Academy is an organisation that includes distinguished individuals who have made a significant contribution in the field of quality and safety in healthcare. The body is a touchstone, a mark of excellence of leadership within research, academia or service delivery in quality and safety, and is considered one of the highest honors that an individual working in this area can receive. Members of the Academy are elected in a strict nomination process by peers. Professor Stellenberg, although retired and living in the rural paradise of Betty’s Bay in the Western Cape, South Africa, is a busy person. Not only has she earned her stripes in the academic field of nursing science, but she continues to this day to work in partnership with her alma mater, Stellenbosch University, to make a difference to the health of South Africans.
Conducting research into malpractice litigation
She obtained a competitive National Research Foundation (NRF) award to conduct malpractice litigation in nursing practice in South Africa. This research study included two master’s degree and one PHD student. By 2018 she had shown the problems contributing to malpractice litigation in private healthcare, and continued the same research in the public sector in 2020. Prof Stellenberg noted that the research found that statistically there was no difference in the clinical care offered in the private and public sectors which led to adverse events and consequently litigation. Similar problems contributed to malpractice litigation. Statistics that showed a country-wide lack of leadership and poor clinical standards in South African healthcare facilities galvanised Prof Stellenberg when she was a Board Member of the Office of Health Standards Compliance (OHSC), the South African body that oversees compliance with standards in its health facilities. Says Professor Stellenberg: “I served on the board of the OHSC for six years and I was shocked at the outcome of inspections of our health institutions. With no exception, all provinces are affected. A major problem was management and leadership – corporate governance and operational management.
Facilities were non-compliant
“All these facilities were critically non-compliant,” says Prof Stellenberg. “We discovered that at a particular clinic, if the registered nurse was absent from the clinic, the gardener was giving out medicines to patients! So, I obtained funds to build the capacity in leadership and management of operational nursing managers in primary health care in two provinces in 2018-2021. An accredited programme of 60 credits offered by Stellenbosch University was implemented in 2018. There were at least 30 students in a group, but this number was eventually increased to 40 students in one of the provinces. We discovered a wide range of issues: some of these students working at clinics did not even know how to use a stethoscope! “COVID-19 interrupted this ambitious project with other academics to build capacity but in 2021, the Eastern Cape came on board as well. “The Eastern Cape has very high litigation levels for medical malpractice, and in 2021 they wanted us to start the tutorials urgently. We designed a module on malpractice litigation/clinical negligence as part of the accredited programme in capacity building in leadership and management of nursing service managers and operational nurse managers. “We extended the programme to cover all levels of care, not just primary health care. Our group of four academics now taught 56 students from all over the Eastern Cape. A second group of 60 students, supported by Discovery Health, were registered in 2022. The programme included 40 hours of practical, a week of face-to-face teaching and four hours of online lectures for five months. The pass rates were very good (87%) and only a few did not complete the required work.
Four provinces now involved
“The Free State now wanted to join, even if there was no funding available. Their DOH said they would pay whatever the university charged. Four provinces are now involved in this training, and it is ongoing. A total of 60 students from the Free State will be registered in the programme. There is every likelihood that the programme will be extended beyond nurses to all categories of hospital workers, depending on what they need to learn.” If that is not enough to keep Prof Stellenberg busy, she is also the National Chairperson of the South African Medico-legal Association (SAMLA). Of interest is the high rate of malpractice litigation in healthcare in South Africa which could be an astronomical expense if all cases went to court. To reduce legal costs and avoid lengthy court cases, SAMLA has conducted a pilot study offering free mediation to 50 litigation cases involving the Gauteng Department of Health and 100 cases for the Road Accident Fund. “Mediation is saving millions of rand by avoiding court,” she says. “We are also working on a new foundation programme in medico-legal practice to teach healthcare professionals about the subject. All this is done online. The programme starts in August 2023.” Prof Stellenberg was a reluctant nominee for the ISQua Academy. She is modest. Her actions to uplift the poor in the Western Cape would exhaust anybody else and her efforts are focused, principled and waste-free. For example, a school in Kuilsriver (a suburb on the northern edge of Cape Town) with many problems approached a Japanese shipping company for R50 000. Prof Stellenberg was asked for her opinion on how this potential donation could best be used. After a brief orientation of the issues, she immediately said the school needed a social worker paid for three years, with an office and all resources paid by the shipping company to sort out many of the schools underlying social problems. The school agreed, set up an office, employed a social worker, got the learners into numeracy and literacy projects, retrained retired teachers, and created a school environment where the learners received many prizes. “Their frowns turned to smiles. We need to prevent problems, not put our fires,” she says of the school project that cut across cultural barriers, economic barriers (the rich and poor worked together to create a better school) and racial barriers. This project – and many others like it including one at the West Coast fishing village of Paternoster which is now a popular tourist resort – earned Prof Stellenberg the University of Stellenbosch Rector’s Award for excellence in community engagement. For Prof Stellenberg there is no such thing as retirement: “My end will be the day my eyes close…” For more information on the ISQua Academy of Quality and Safety, see this link: https://isqua.org/resources-blog/blog/international-academy-of-quality-and-safety.html
Cure Day Hospitals take quality improvement seriously
It was cake for everyone at the Cure Day Hospital in Somerset West when COHSASA handed over a second three-year accreditation certificate to Carmen Bester, the Hospital Manager, and staff. And what a cake it was! Emblazoned with COHSASA and Cure Day Hospital logos, the large chocolate cake was eye-catching and delicious.
Ms Jacqui Stewart, CEO of COHSASA said that it was a pleasure to be handing out yet another accreditation award to Cure Day Hospitals which is making bold strides in the field of quality improvement and patient safety. Nine of the 11 Cure Day Hospitals are now in the COHSASA programme, which makes it one of the few private healthcare groups with the bulk of its hospitals committed to quality improvement and patient safety through accreditation.
Said Carmen Bester, ““ I’m delighted that Cure Day Hospital Somerset West has achieved its second consecutive three-year accreditation. At Cure Day Hospital Somerset West, we strive to provide a service of excellent standard, with respect and compassion, to our patients and the COHSASA programme assists us in achieving this goal.”
The hospital exterior
The Team responsible for implementing Accreditation
Hospital Manager, Carmen Bester, cuts the celebratory cake while CEO of COHSASA Jacqui Stewart looks on.
A very delicious and impressive cake!
Mediclinic Vergelegen shines in the quality stakes
Mediclinic Vergelegen is setting a pace for quality improvement, patient safety, and accreditation in Somerset West in the Western Cape. The hospital was handed its second 4-year accreditation certificate by the CEO of COHSASA, Ms Jacqui Stewart, this week. This is the hospital’s seventh accreditation award since receiving its first one in 1996. With such a long history of compliance with international standards, it is clear, said Ms Stewart, that Mediclinic Vergelegen has quality improvement deeply embedded in its DNA.
“It is part of what you do every day. I have come to the hospital to present the certificate, instead of sending it via courier, because I know that Mediclinic Vergelegen – like many other hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic – was operating at full stretch with staff working long hours. We at COHSASA wanted to pay tribute to your staff for going the extra mile and for using the standards to help get you through the pandemic.”
Hospital General Manager, Marquin Crotz said there was no doubt that adherence to standards had helped the hospital maintain its operational performance, even during the most critical time of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Senior Management Team receive their second four-year accreditation award from COHSASA
Cure Day Bellville Hospital has a reason to celebrate
Staff at Cure Day Hospitals Bellville gathered in the foyer in front of a colourful painting this week to celebrate receipt of their three-year accreditation certificate from the CEO of COHSASA, Ms Jacqui Stewart. Cure Day Hospitals is making great strides in the quality improvement game with nine of their eleven hospitals now in the COHSASA programme. This high percentage in the COHSASA quality improvement and accreditation programme signals that Cure Day Hospitals is an organisation that is is serious about providing safe and better care to their patients.
Receiving the certificate yesterday was Hospital Manager, Sr Ezette van Brakel who had high praise for COHSASA’s programme. The hospital has thirty-five full-time staff members, eighteen beds and a procedure room with four chairs. This is the third time Cure Day Hospitals Bellville has been accredited. They received their first accreditation award in 2017, second in 2019 (for three years) and the current award is valid until 2026.
COHSASA CEO, Jacqui Stewart (left) hands over the accreditation certificate to Sr. Ezette van Brakel, Hospital Manager of the Cure Day Hospital Bellville.
The Cure Day Hospitals Bellville Team that drove the accreditation process enjoys the moment of receiving its third COHSASA accreditation certificate.
Mediclinic Paarl embraces quality improvement and accreditation
The Quality TeamIn front, from the left: Riëtte Muller (Theatre Unit Manager), Elizma de Klerk (Infection Prevention & Control Specialist), Magdalene Douw (Surgical Unit H Unit Manager), Mathrodene Naude (Medical Unit B Senior Professional Nurse ), Jacqui Stewart (CEO of COHSASA), Henri van Waart (Hospital General Manager), Patricia Koopman (CCU Unit Manager), Marena Karelse (Obstetrics Unit C Unit Manager), Roseline Janskies (Surgical Unit G Senior Professional Nurse) and Susanna Rossouw (Emergency Centre Unit Manager).
At the back from left is Corné Bekker (Doctor Relationship Manager), Liana van der Walt (Learning & Development Facilitator), Helét Mostert (Pharmacy Manager), Luzaan Bester (Hospital Secretary), Maureen Nel (Medical Unit B Unit Manager & acting UM for Surgical Unit A), Jackie Zamudio-Prins (Nursing Manager), Aden Adams (Technical Manager), Tarryn Rhaman (HR Business Partner), Annelise Nel (Patient Safety Manager), Gideon Jonas (Wisdom Security: Site Supervisor) and Jacorie Visagie (Patient Experience Manager).
The Hospital General Manager and head of units and quality teams assembled in the conference room of Mediclinic Paarl this week to receive an accreditation certificate from COHSASA CEO, Jacqui Stewart. This hospital has been in the COHSASA programme since November 1996 and has received seven subsequent accreditation awards. The latest, awarded by the COHSASA Board in late May when the hospital scored 97, is a four-year accreditation award suggesting that quality improvement is deeply entrenched in the culture of the hospital.
Commenting on Mediclinic Paarl’s achievements, CEO of COHSASA, Jacqui Stewart said that it was her absolute pleasure and privilege to meet all the staff at the hospital and to present the certificate.
“You are a very committed team and have demonstrated that quality can be part of everything you do. You all deserve the recognition.”
Mediclinic Paarl Hospital General Manager, Henri van Waart, commented on the occasion:
“I am very happy that Mediclinic Paarl has achieved its third consecutive four-year accreditation. Our hospital has benefited a lot from the COHSASA programme, which has ensured that we adhere to strict quality and safety standards. The programme’s strict guidelines, evaluations and focus on quality improvement have led to better protocols, streamlined processes, and a stronger focus on care that is centred on the patient.
“The service has become more efficient, proactive, and in line with international best practices. COHSASA’s survey was done in the most effective way possible. It included thorough evaluations and actionable comments that helped different departments make targeted changes, which has led to better healthcare delivery overall.”
Metropolitan Hospital in Nairobi meets international standards
The leadership team who drove the accreditation programme at the hospital. (From left): Elijah Ongeri, the Head of Nursing and Quality, Dr K.K Gakombe, Founder and CEO, James Wesonga, Quality Improvement Manager and Elijah Ongeri, the head of Nursing and Quality.
The level 5[1],160-bed Metropolitan Hospital operating in Buruburu in Eastlands, Nairobi since 1994, has been making waves in terms of improved services to patients and safer care. Hospital data is showing satisfied patients with good clinical outcomes and a drop in adverse events.
The hospital entered the COHSASA programme in August 2019. In April 2022 it achieved a pre-accreditation award at Entry level. Somehow, from April to October in 2022, it switched gears and made excellent progress by addressing outstanding deficiencies in the standards to be awarded full accreditation.
Mr. James Wesonga, the Quality Improvement Manager, believes there were several reasons for the hospital’s rapid move towards full compliance with the COHSASA standards. Along with Mr. Elijah Ongeri, Metropolitan Hospital’s Head of Nursing, he led the accreditation programme from the start, working after hours to achieve the goal. “We were dedicated, and we knew how important patient safety and quality healthcare is to our hospital,” says Wesonga.
An inspiring leader in the accreditation process has been Dr. Kanyenje Gakombe, the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Metropolitan Hospitals Limited. Dr, Gakombe says “The decision to sign up with COHSASA was intentional and strategic. We had done our market survey and explored all the available options and COHSASA resonated with our hospital mission. As we joined the journey it was clear how our patients and all other stakeholders would benefit.”
But it was not easy at the beginning of the programme.
According to Ongeri, one of the difficulties of the quality journey was to convince management that it was a worthwhile to invest in the process There was already a significant delay in accreditation related to the pandemic and there was a cost to achieving the standards across the hospital.
“Management required us to present a business case and we had to show them why spending the money to meet the standards was worth it. We had to put forward a case for quality to the Board. At the start it not easy and we got quite frustrated at times. But once we could show them what we could achieve – without even a formal quality unit requiring extra salaries – they began to see the value. We worked closely with the head of finance and in the end, the Board decided to invest fully in quality.”
Wesonga says he and Elijah would stay after their shift and work through the standards, look at policies and see what was happening on the ground and then come up with a plan.
“It was a hectic job in 2019. We had so much to do and so much training that had to be done. Fortunately, we were able to benchmark with other hospitals and we learnt a lot from them. Slowly the management began to understand just how important quality was for the safety of our patients.”
“We do not have a ‘quality unit’ in our hospital and the two of us, with Dr Gakombe leading, have driven the programme with a number of committee leaders. We motivate unit leaders and champions in all departments across the hospital to drive the quality agenda. This means that people who are familiar with how their own units and departments operate drive the standards compliance progress in those units – not an outsider who looks at quality from a generic point of view. In this way everyone in the hospital – even the casual labourers – became involved.
Says Wesonga: “We were not doing this for COHSASA – we were doing this for our patients, and we saw that the process of accreditation was very important. We changed our strategy and we benchmarked with our peers.”
It was patently clear to Wesonga and Ongeri before the COHSASA external survey in April 2022 that the hospital was nowhere near compliance with standards. They knew that they would not be accredited at that stage. When COHSASA reported back after the survey and pointed out the gaps, there were no surprises. The hospital knew about them.
“COHSASA Quality Improvement Manager, Dr Leonard Londa, told us that we would not be accredited and that the process was not ‘magic’. This was so important for us to hear,” says Ongeri.
Soon after that Wesonga and Ongeri devised a plan on how the hospital would achieve full accreditation. They set up two surveys – one an internal self-audit in July 2022 where they invited peers from another accredited facility to audit the areas that did not reach full compliance in the April survey. This was a critical move because their peers could notice shortcomings from a fresh perspective. After that was a COHSASA remote survey in September.
“Quality consciousness eliminates waste.”
This strong quality team thinks hospitals entering the COHSASA programme should be offered several remote surveys in the contracts they sign because it improved their confidence levels.
Says Ongeri: “Now, quality improvement is at the top of our senior management meeting agenda. We present quality parameters before we present anything else. Most private hospitals have money at the top of the agenda, but we have discovered that placing the requirements of a quality improvement journey first helps to prevent one from spending money in an inappropriate way or spending money you do not have. Quality consciousness eliminates waste.”
According to James Wesonga, one of the key learnings from the accreditation journey has been how many medical errors can be prevented by focusing on quality and how quality improvement has reduced the length of stay of so many of their patients.
“So many of the standards we work with are related to patient and staff safety. In the risk management service element, for example, many of the criteria are focused on critical key areas of safety like the management of medication and how to avoid errors related to high alert and look alike and sound alike medicines.
“Once you make quality your central reference, you are on a journey to prevent so many untoward things from happening to patients. We encouraged our staff to report all near misses, errors and incidents and to conduct root cause analysis.
“ When we checked the trends of adverse events and near misses, there was a steady decline of incidents in the hospital thanks to the accreditation journey. We have learnt a lot as a hospital and as a team,” he said.
With artful insight Ongeri says that for him the actual process of the quality improvement journey was possibly more important than the accreditation. “The most important thing about the process is planning. If one does not plan, one will fail. One needs to internalise all the documents and tools the accreditation programme provides and then break them down to actionable items. Then you plan and that plan has to trickle down to the lowest cadre of staff. Staff need to know, with a clear instruction, how to engage with the process.
“I think the most important aspect is how the accreditation process affected patient outcomes. For example, the average length of stay for the past three years has dropped. We have started a new programme to follow up on patients at home. Each patient gets a follow-up call once they are home to find out how they are. They are asked specific questions about pain management, medication and follow-up.
“That’s the importance of the accreditation programme. It changes how you think and how you plan. It has completely changed how we think about our patients and about our processes. We found that when you start with quality, everything else falls in place. It changes how you look at construction because everything we have constructed after COHSASA follows quality standards,” says Wesonga.
“When you start with quality, everything else falls in place.”
“For example, it was very difficult to accredit some units that were built before we entered this programme, but a theatre built recently and after we entered the COHSASA programme meant that there were a lot of considerations about patient flow. It changed health management teams and how much money has been allocated to items that improve staff and patient safety. We have reduced staff incidences and needlestick injuries substantially. It looks like magic but when you look back at programmes you put in place required by the standards, you start seeing the consequences of careful planning. Root cause analysis has meant that we prevent adverse events recurring,” Wesonga said.
“We trained staff to capture quality indicator data accurately and, as a result, we have accurate statistics about what is going on in our hospital and we can act on that information.”
Ongeri believes that teamwork began to emerge as a very positive feature in the hospital. “Not only does the COHSASA process require formal teamwork, but it allows leaders to emerge. The success of each committee depended on the leadership qualities of the person who held that committee together. Every person in the hospital belonged to a specific team – either a fire response team or a resuscitation team – in addition to their daily routine. This arrangement completely changed our resuscitation figures.
“Previously resuscitation was not well coordinated. When the alarm sounded for resuscitation, only those willing to respond would do so. With the introduction of the QI process, we had to train people on resuscitation, and they were given duties according to a roster. Thus, they knew that if cardio-pulmonary resuscitation was required and they were on call, they had to respond.
Wesonga and Ongeri have worked closely with the Customer Relations Manager who gets feedback from patients about the hospital. There has been an increase in the number of patients who report that access to the hospital is better and that cleanliness of the hospital has improved. They report that patient care has improved: things are different and healthcare workers treat their patients with respect.
The numbers of patients or their relatives demanding to speak to management (usually because something is wrong) has dropped substantially.
“The first thing patients say when they come here is, ‘Wow! Things have changed!’” says Ongeri.
He recalls that last year, after a meeting with Judy Njino, the UN Global Compact Executive Director for Kenya, when they met her at the main door she said, “Wow! This is happening in Eastlands!”
“You know we are in that part of the city – Eastlands – where people don’t expect great things and when great things happen, it gets the attention of everyone,” says Ongeri.
The UN Global Compact was so excited about what she saw at Metropolitan Hospital that she mentioned it on LinkedIn, and she also requested they write a paper about the innovations and improvements. This is due for publication in Poland soon.
Another positive outcome resulting from the QI journey has been significantly improved surgical outcomes. If a hospital is known to have high surgical site infections, surgeons are less likely to use the hospital. Metropolitan is gaining a reputation for having good surgical outcomes and the number of surgeons and physicians seeking to become consultants at the hospital has tripled.
“We are gaining a reputation for having the correct theatre equipment, the correct processes and our outcomes are good. Thus, we are attracting more patients and that affects our top line in a very positive manner,” says Ongeri.
He recalls an example of how quality teams affected good outcomes. “During surgery, a patient flatlined and the surgical team was overwhelmed. The resuscitation team responded quickly, and everyone knew what to do and the patient’s life was saved. That might not have happened before we began the COHSASA process.
“Measuring data, something we learnt during the QI programme, had a direct effect on how we treated our COVID-19 patients. We used the data to analyse why one particular doctor was achieving higher survival rates and found that a particular approach – using steroids earlier – had better outcomes. The Ministry of Health and other stakeholders noted our results via our daily bulletin. We trained hospitals beyond our border in this method, and I think we had an impact,” said Ongeri.
Wesonga agrees with this assessment and says that meeting standards in service elements such as risk assessment and infection control assisted the hospital in managing COVID-19 patients.
“We had no cross-infections from patients to our doctors or nurses. We ensured that the PPE equipment – masks and goggles – and clothing that our staff used underwent quality testing.
“This is what quality improvement does. It makes you think in a whole new way,” said James Wesonga.
[1] Hospitals classified under Level 5 in the Kenyan health system include county referral hospitals and large private / mission (faith-based) hospitals.
Mediclinic achieves excellent results in quality and accreditation awards
Mediclinic’s years of commitment to quality is paying off
Mediclinic Windhoek
The Mediclinic Group in South Africa has put its best foot forward with one of the highest number ever of its facilities receiving four-year accreditation awards at a recent Board Meeting of COHSASA. A total of eight Mediclinic hospitals, scattered throughout South Africa and Namibia, achieved the highest accolade: a four-year accreditation.
What does this mean?
Health facilities that have been accredited by The Council for Health Service Accreditation of Southern Africa (COHSASA) meet extremely rigorous international standards, signifying that patients attending these facilities can expect to receive safe, quality care. To see more about accreditation, look at www.cohsasa.co.za
COHSASA is a not-for-profit company (NPC) based in Cape Town.
Name of Hospital | Location | Award Given |
Mediclinic Geneva | George, Southern Cape, RSA | Full Four-Year Accreditation |
Mediclinic Kimberley | Kimberley, Northern Cape | Full Four-Year Accreditation |
Mediclinic Limpopo | Polokwane, Limpopo | Full Four-Year Accreditation |
Mediclinic Panorama | Panorama, Cape Town | Full Four-Year Accreditation |
Mediclinic Pietermaritzburg | Pietermaritzburg, KZN | Full Four-Year Accreditation |
Mediclinic Vergelegen | Somerset West, Cape Town | Full Four-Year Accreditation |
Mediclinic Welkom | Welkom, Free State | Full Four-Year Accreditation |
Mediclinic Windhoek | Windhoek, Namibia | Full Four-Year Accreditation |
ISurgeon Specialist Eye Clinic | Edenvale, Gauteng | Full Two-Year Accreditation |
A COHSASA full accreditation award means that a healthcare facility has entered a demanding quality improvement programme and has been assessed against and complied with standards recognised by the International Society for Quality in Health Care External Evaluation Association (ISQua-EEA), the global body overseeing accreditation and quality improvement programmes in healthcare organisations in 70 countries around the world.
COHSASA itself is accredited by the IEEA as are its standards. COHSASA is the only accrediting body for healthcare facilities in Sub-Saharan Africa recognised by the IEEA.
Healthcare facilities that initially enter the programme and meet standards are awarded two-year accreditations and as the journey in quality improvement continues, awards of longer duration are given. A four-year accreditation award from the Council should signal to patients that a facility has sustained an excellent level of standards over a significant period of time.
All facilities that receive an accreditation award must undergo an interim survey halfway through the period to ensure that standards are being maintained.
Avenue Hospital in Kenya shines in competition

(From left): CEO of COHSASA, Jacqui Stewart, Peninah Kirea, Chief Nursing Officer Avenue Group, Mohammed Said, Chief Executive at Avenue Hospital Parklands and Yana Gorbatenko, Senior Operations Officer at IFC.
COHSASA made a good showing at a recent IFC Private Health Conference “Developing Resilient Health Systems in Emerging Markets” when one of its recently accredited facilities, Avenue Hospital Parklands in Nairobi, won the competition to present the best business case for quality competition at the conference. The competition had earned its entrants a free pass for the two-day conference and the honour of the award. Participants had been invited to submit entries showing how they had implemented quality improvement activities and the results that these had on improving patient care and giving a return on investment.