PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla., Oct. 24, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Global Healthcare Accreditation (GHA) Program for Medical Travel Services and The Council for Health Service Accreditation of Southern Africa NPC (COHSASA), have announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding for collaboration between the two accreditation programs to strengthen the protocols and services provided by healthcare providers to medical travel and international patients in Africa. Read official press release here.
GHA and COHSASA will work with accredited hospitals in Africa as a prerequisite to offering Global Healthcare Accreditation for Medical Travel Services in the region. The accreditation may be from a recognized national or international accreditation body, such as COHSASA, JCI or Accreditation Canada. COHSASA will also serve as GHA's local partner in Africa, providing information about GHA accreditation to hospitals serving international and medical tourism patients.
According to Ms. Jacqui Stewart, Chief Executive Officer of COHSASA, "Over the past 24 years COHSASA has focused on delivering quality healthcare in Africa through sustained improvement, using internationally recognized standards, patient safety principles and operational research. We are excited to partner with Global Healthcare Accreditation, the leader for developing medical travel standards, to optimize the delivery of care for medical travel patients."
Ms. Karen Timmons, GHA's Chief Executive Officer stated, "GHA is pleased to partner with The Council for Health Service Accreditation of Southern Africa to enhance the patient experience for medical travelers and proactively mitigate risk along the entire medical travel care continuum. GHA Standards focus on the entire medical travel care continuum and specifically how all steps in the care continuum contribute to an overall safe, high quality medical travel experience. COHSASA hospitals participating in GHA accreditation shall also benefit with additional visibility through GHA distribution channels, and COHSASA will also provide additional visibility to GHA accredited hospitals through its distribution channels."
About The Council for Health Service Accreditation of Southern Africa NPC (COHSASA):
COHSASA NPC is a South African company which has been operating in the SADEC region (but principally in South Africa) since 1995. It was conceived in 1994 to support the New South Africa and Government efforts to provide equity in healthcare provision. In the past 24 years the Council has worked in healthcare facilities in both the private and public sectors, conferring accreditation on those facilities that comply with standards that have been ratified by representative professional bodies and the International Society for Quality in Health Care.
*Medical travel is also commonly known as medical tourism or health tourism.
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