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One of the challenges in patient safety is that healthcare professionals aren't always open and willing to talk about a mistake, and more needs to be done to disclose and explain to the patient if something goes wrong.
Jacqui Stewart, Chief Executive Officer – The Council for Health Service Accreditation of Southern Africa (COHSASA), Cape Town, South Africa, comments:
"It's about embedding quality in the everyday work of every healthcare professional and ensuring no shortcuts are taken. Right, from the receptionist to the CEO of the hospital, everybody has to take responsibility for doing the right thing,” she added.
Irene Ogongo, Founder and Lead Mentor – Nurses in Africa, based in Nairobi, Kenya, emphasises that when COVID-19 took centre stage, safety took over quality, sharing that, “One of the lessons I quickly learned was that quality is being viewed as something to do after everything else is said and done, which should not be the case.”
While Dr Edgar Kalimba, Deputy CEO – King Faisal Hospital in Kigali, Rwanda, highlights that healthcare workers in his hospital were becoming COVID-19 positive from the community as well as within the hospital and that required the need to change the approach. “Before we were testing only those who showed symptoms, but we quickly changed that to testing every elective admission patient. Based on this we were admitting patients who were asymptomatic or had mild symptoms and this helped in stopping the spread to the healthcare staff,” he said.
Dr Kalimba adds that his hospital also realised that there was a need to allocate teams differently. “We put the doctors and nurses into different groups and teams, and they stick to that group when they do their shifts. So, for instance, if a member of the staff becomes COVID-19 positive it will be only within that team instead of different groups.
"All these measures have helped reduce exposure to staff and helped to control spread within the hospital. One thing that we are looking to do is significantly step up our remote consultations.”
“I think for the future, accreditation has a big role to play. I always say it's not a sprint, it's a marathon because it's about ensuring quality.
"Your first accreditation is actually the first step, the challenge, however, is to stay accredited and maintain those standards,” concludes Stewart.
The pandemic has exerted unprecedented pressure on healthcare systems worldwide. As described by Dr Adebola Olayinka, National Lassa Fever Research Coordinator – Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Abuja, Nigeria, a lack of access to PPE has been having a major psychological effect impacting healthcare worker safety.
Elom Otchi, Technical Director, Africa Institute of Healthcare Quality – Safety & Accreditation (AfIHQSA) adds that due to this lack of access, instances of PPE shortages have been partly addressed through pragmatic measures such as the sewing of face masks.
Regina Njima, Co-Founder & Managing Partner – Kizo Ventures highlights how, when faced with over a 1-2 week wait for N95 masks to arrive from China because of supply chain disruption, surgical masks were used in their place.
Despite facing zero clients because of the pandemic, Ghana-based Rabito Clinic did what it could do help the healthcare community amidst rising PPE costs. According to Karen A.S Hendrickson, CEO – Rabito Clinic, there was significant price gouging, and the prices of PPE had quadrupled in some cases. And so the business ordered 10,000 PPE for government nurses and doctors, while 5,000 individual hand sanitisers were given for free to police officers.
There are also ongoing trials taking place to examine how to decontaminate or recycle crucial PPE, such as the N95 masks. Likewise, countries are also providing grants to produce PPEs in a self-sustaining manner.
Stating that “the willingness to embrace the digital economy will separate the winners from the losers,” Hubert Danso, CEO and Chairperson – Africa Investor, speaks of an online solution launched earlier in the year that to date has achieved more than US$ 80 million in sales through shifting 45 million pieces of PPE. This included some products going from Africa to non-African countries.
