At the accreditation ceremony of Reddington hospital were (from left): Dr Adeyemi Onabowale, CEO of the hospital, Dr Olasimbo Davidson, Quality Assurance Manager and Professor Stuart Whittaker CEO of COHSASA.
 
After four long years of dedicated effort since it entered the programme in July 2008, Reddington Hospital in Lagos, Nigeria, has been accredited by COHSASA. The hospital is a multi-specialist facility offering tertiary level care.
 
The COHSASA accreditation award, valid until November 2014, was conferred at a celebratory function in Pinelands, Cape Town and attended by the hospital’s CEO, Dr Adeyemi Onabowale, Mrs Oludayo Onabowale, a director at the hospital and Dr Olasimbo Davidson, the Quality Assurance Manager.
 
Welcoming the trio to COHSASA, CEO Professor Stuart Whittaker said that the hospital had achieved an overall score of 96 out of 100 with some areas of operation (service elements) showing dramatic improvements in compliance scores from the baseline to the external survey. Three service elements – prevention and control of infection, patient and family rights and linen management achieved impressive scores of 100.
 
Said Professor Whittaker, “We would like you to convey our admiration to all staff at your hospital who have worked so hard to achieve this award. It means that your hospital is now compliant with internationally accredited standards.”
 
Dr Onabowale said that the biggest challenge the hospital faced prior to the accreditation had been to motivate staff to understand its value, as the whole concept of hospital accreditation is still new in Nigeria.
 
“It has been an interesting journey for us all. Getting accredited is not a quick fix: we had to keep at it, block by block, service by service until we reached compliance. It has taken a lot of time and dedication and my major challenge was to engage people who resisted the process. Once that was achieved and we had buy-in, things really started to move.”
 
Reddington Hospital’s Quality Assurance Manager, Dr Olasimbo Davidson, is an ardent believer in the value of accreditation. “I would like to try and ensure that all hospitals in Nigeria are accredited,” she says. “I have tried to persuade people of the value of accreditation as they were not initially convinced that it would make a difference.   In our own process, we found that the impetus was achieved when we won over the nurses. Only then could we go forward.”
 
Dr Onabowale handed over a formal letter of appreciation from the hospital to COHSASA in which he expressed that, “it has been a rewarding and exciting experience for all of us at Reddington Hospital for this award, which obviously justified all the investments, diligence and hard work put into the programme by every one of our staff over the past four years. We trust this accreditation will provide us with a unique opportunity to continually improve on the quality and standard of care we provide to our valued patients.”