The Hospital Beatriz Ângelo (HBA) has received, for the second time, full accreditation from the Joint Commission International (JCI), thus once again confirming that the provision of health care at this hospital complies with high international standards of quality and safety. The aim of the visit by JCI experts, who were in Loures on 9 and 10 October, was to conduct a second audit on HBA clinical, administrative and management services, especially to check if the recommendations made last year during the first large-scale JCI audit of the hospital had been implemented. At the time, the international experts assessed more than 1,300 quality and safety parameters with HBA receiving a positive mark of 98%. The result after the JCI team had visited different clinical departments during two days of intensive work confirmed that almost all of the processes where recommendations had been made had been improved. Now, HBA only has five partial conformities in process quality parameters 'which have no direct connection to care provision', explained Francisco Mota, from the HBA Executive Board. 'They are therefore, simple situations which can be easily resolved', he added. At the end of the audit, Enrico Baldantoni, the Italian physician who was in charge of the second JCI audit to the HBA, congratulated all of the hospital staff for having achieved this 'extraordinary' result. He also noted that this is even more important due to the fact that the HBA is a relatively new organization. This time, the JCI team visited the A&E, psychiatric and nuclear medicine departments, while also taking in the pharmacy, admission, morgue and laboratories. They also assessed processes for IT systems and human resources. Next year, JCI experts will be back for a new audit.
