The National Standards Authority, Sri Lanka Standards Institute (SLSI) commends leading private healthcare provider Hemas Hospitals, as the first hospital in the country to obtain the COVID-19 Safety Certification.
The SLSI established the Certification Scheme to ensure that an organisation and its stakeholders, through its activities, products, and services, are safeguarded from the risks of COVID-19. It is awarded after fulfilling a comprehensive set of requirements under SLS 1672: 2020 (Sri Lanka Standard specification for COVID-19 Safety Management Systems).
“We commend the Hemas Hospitals chain on this well-deserved accreditation. Their operations and processes portray an exceptional commitment to upholding global best practices in patient safety management at all levels of care. It is vital that patients feel safe and comfortable accessing high-quality healthcare without worrying about getting infected during this pandemic. This might cause them to delay taking proper care of their medical conditions, putting them in even more danger. In such a context, we believe the highly-committed team at Hemas Hospitals has invested a remarkable amount of thought and strategy to introduce protocols to ensure a safe and efficient environment for patients, staff and visitors,” Sri Lanka Standards Institute Director-General, Dr. Siddhika G Senaratne stated.
As the first hospital to receive the certification, Hemas Hospitals adheres strictly to the Ministry of Health directives and guidelines in implementing COVID -19 safety protocols and measures. Some of these include effective triaging, handwashing and sanitising facilities, crowd control and distancing, installation of transparent barriers of all hospital counters, setting up of designated isolation areas to treat suspected patients, performing PCR & antigen tests on suspicious patients and thsafe transfer of positive patients to a COVID-19 treatment centre or an intermediate care centrer (ICC).
The hospital's staff also utilizes Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) of the highest recommended standards while interacting with patients. Furthermore, the hospital actions strict measures to control infection within the hospital premises including the regular disinfection of floors and surfaces, air disinfection in selected patient areas and continuous training of staff on all protocols and guidelines with regard to COVID-19 safety management.
Hemas Hospitals is fully re-accredited by the Australian Council of Healthcare Standards International (ACHSI) for the third consecutive term. The accreditation is reassurance from global experts of Hemas Hospitals’ ability to provide maximum safety and global best practices in care which directly results in reduced length of stay, faster recovery for the patient and reducing the cost of treatment. It holds the record as the first hospital in Sri Lanka to be awarded this prestigious international accreditation.
The unique SLSI accreditation is the very first COVID-19 Safety Certification in the world and aims to boost organisational compliance to health directives and enhance stakeholder confidence in them. The SLSI is looking at rolling out this certifcation globally, asserting its credibility in the international healthcare arena.
"The COVID-19 Safety Management Certification was first actioned in 2020, as a third-party guarantee that an organisation maintains a safe environment for all its stakeholders by actioning stringent measures which take into account all possible sources of infection within a particular setting. Ultimately, it enhances patient and employee confidence in an organisation’s safety protocols, which is imperative for any institution operating during this intense global health pandemic," she continued to state.
The certification is awarded after an extensive, multi-step audit that screens the organisation’s strict adherence to COVID-19 safety operational health protocols established based on Ministry of Health (MOH), Epidemiology Unit, Center for Disease Control (CDC) and World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. It assesses a healthcare institution’s operations, and reviews and adjusts protocols for the management of infectious diseases.