Internal Medicine of the Costa del Sol Hospital obtains the optimal level of the Andalusian Agency for Health Quality

MARBELLA (MÁLAGA), 16 Jan. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Internal Medicine service of the Hospital Costa del Sol, in Marbella (Málaga) has obtained the optimum level certification granted by the Andalusian Agency for Health Quality (ACSA), an evaluation and certification entity belonging to the Ministry of Health and Consumption and integrated into the Fundación Progreso y Salud, whose standards are recognized by national and international accreditation bodies such as Enac or the International Society for Quality in Healthcare.

With this distinction, this service is the one with the highest number of standards compliance in its specialty in Andalusia. In addition, only two other units in this specialty have this optimum level certification at the Andalusian level.

As they have pointed out through a statement, the distinction adds to those already obtained by the Costa del Sol Hospital and its dependent centers, which continues to be the institution with the largest number of certified ‘Optimum’ level services in Andalusia.

Specifically, this is the third quality certification with the ACSA of this Clinical Management Unit (December 2022) since its first process ended in June 2016 and the second in August 2022, both at an advanced level.

With this distinction, certified entities demonstrate their commitment to excellence and continuous improvement of the service they offer to the public, guaranteeing that their activity complies with the quality standards defined in the ACSA certification manuals.

These quality criteria evaluate aspects related to the organization of the activity, accessibility and continuity of care, user rights or process safety.

Through the self-assessment that the units carry out on the ACSA standards and that are ratified in an evaluation visit, the certification process constitutes, in addition to recognition, an opportunity for learning and growth, which allows identifying and developing actions of gets better.

The standards manual for the certification of Clinical Management Units contemplates 125 standards of which the Internal Medicine unit of the Costa del Sol Hospital has met 86%.
In this way, the ACSA has recognized the commitment to quality of the professionals in this service, who have obtained excellent results in areas such as clinical information, quality and safety tools, the person as an active subject, and management and strategic planning and clinical governance.

According to the ACSA, “the involvement of the entire team of professionals and teamwork to adopt the measures proposed in the quality standards and in the continuous improvement of the established protocols stand out, detecting failures and correcting them when they appear”.

Throughout the process, the evaluation team has been able to verify the continuity of care among its strengths, since the service has a written procedure that guarantees the continuity of patient care between different areas and levels of care.

This analyzes the different scenarios in which the patient has to move and defines the processes for coordination between the different professionals. It also identifies the critical points in the process, the tools and channels available to guarantee this continuity, etc.

In addition, the unit has designed the resource that it has called the Care Continuity Unit (UCA), a day hospital care device that responds to the instability or exacerbation of fragile patients, or with complex chronicity, without the need for hospital admission. .

Another point highlighted by the ACSA is patient safety and highlights the infographics prepared by the service on notifiable diseases and management of epidemic outbreaks that constitute a good tool to facilitate the notification of professionals.

In this regard, they point out, “we must highlight the rapid action of the unit’s professionals in the event of sentinel events or risk situations for the patient, the correct management by the unit and the coordination for the response to them, maintaining the objectivity and valuing the professionalism of its members”. Also, he continues, “they provide support to all those involved and generate confidence, both in patients and in professionals.”

Regarding continuous improvement, the ACSA has identified as another strength the continuous verification of the support of the activity with the monitoring and implementation of areas of improvement identified in previous certifications.

Finally, in the process management section, this agency has highlighted the work of this unit in preparing the ‘Delirium Code’ to detect patients at risk, prevent and, where appropriate, manage the appearance of delirium in hospitalized patients.

From the Quality Unit of the Costa del Sol Hospital and affiliated centers through these lines they have wanted to “value the involvement of professionals during the certification process, giving fundamental importance to teamwork, patient safety, interlevel communication, adherence to good care practices, innovation, valuing the opinion of the patient as a key to managing change and the permanent search for excellence in each of the activities they carry out, which translates into the results obtained in this process.

For his part, the director of the Internal Medicine area, Javier García Alegría, stated that this certification “is a source of pride since the result is not due to one-off work but to a commitment to a culture of excellence, safety and quality rooted in the service and by a firm commitment of all the professionals. This recognition reflects good work and is an incentive to continue progressing in the quality of patient care”.