After having won the award for Latin American Deal of the Year in 2008, and then been selected as one of the top 100 Public Private Partnerships in the world for its innovative social approach, InterHealth Canada successfully completed all infrastructure works and opened the Turks and Caicos Islands facilities on time and to budget in April 2010.
Now, two years into operating, the hospital project has received international accreditation. InterHealth Canada’s innovative public private partnership with the government of the TCI has been awarded the highest possible accreditation — diamond level – by the Ottawa-based Accreditation Canada International, whose mission it is to examine the progress and standards of hospitals throughout the world.
TCI’s healthcare provisions improved dramatically two years ago when InterHealth Canada opened hospitals in the capital island, Grand Turk, and the high-end island resort of Providenciales. As part of the agreement with the government, the hospitals were to gain accreditation before the end of the second operational year, and this has not only been achieved but achieved to the highest possible level.
InterHealth Canada TCI is a subsidiary of InterHealth Canada Ltd, a Canadian provider of global healthcare solutions that operates internationally in the UK, Middle East, Africa, Poland, Georgia and the British Virgin Islands. The TCI subsidiary participated in the Accreditation Canada Qmentum International program, which has three pass levels: gold, platinum and diamond. This is based on the latest research and evidence, with extensive feedback from clients, surveyors, board members and staff. The emphasis is on health system performance, risk prevention planning, client safety, performance measurement and governance. In order to achieve accreditation an organisation must reach at least the gold standard. InterHealth Canada comfortably surpassed that to gain the ultimate accolade.
Dr Roger Cheesman, CEO of InterHealth Canada (TCI) Ltd said: ‘This is an incredible achievement, especially given that the centres have only been open for two years and brought together people from many different areas of the world to work as a team.‘It must be seen as our commitment to achieving the best we can within the limits of the project and accreditation is the validation of our work to date.
‘The entire hospital staff has been involved in some way or another with the process, which has been underway for some considerable time. It is a credit to their determination and tenacity to provide excellent service to those who rely on us for care. Long hours have been worked but the entire team has come through it all with this amazing result.’
George Commander, president and chief executive of the parent company, InterHealth Canada Ltd added this perspective: “This is a remarkable, but well deserved, achievement for the company and at the same time puts the whole Caribbean region firmly on the map for innovative partnerships between public and private sectors in the integrated delivery and operation of healthcare infrastructure.
“Our hope is that other governments, both regionally and internationally, will now be able to benefit from the knowledge acquired in the Turks and Caicos Islands and will see this as an example of how the aspirations of their citizens to receive world class healthcare can be fulfilled.”
