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Essam government hospital wins 2017 best hospital award

Essam Government Hospital was adjudged the best hospital in the Western Region in the Peer Review Mechanism for the year 2017.

Date Created : 3/2/2018 1:57:59 AM : Story Author : GNA

The Hospital placed first with an overall score of 98.5 per cent with Wassa Akoropong and Juabeso Government Hospitals as first and second runners up, respectively with scores of 96.0 per cent and 95.6 per cent.

Essam Hospital received a plaque, a mower and a printer as its reward at the 2017 Annual review workshop held in Takoradi.

A statement signed by Dr Emmanuel Kwesi Coomson, the Medical Superintendent and copied to the Ghana News Agency said, 21 hospitals across the region participated in the mechanism for the converted position of best hospital in the region.

It said the Peer Review Mechanism was introduced in the region in 2012 as a quality improvement tool by Dr Emmanuel Atsu Dodor, the Regional Deputy Director of Health Services in charge of Clinical Care.

In the mechanism, each hospital in the region is visited by a team of varied category of staff from sister hospitals with a checklist.

“The checklist assesses the hospital in various thematic areas of health care including environment, infection prevention and control, emergency systems and quality assurance,” it added.

Other areas are clinical practice, client care, occupational health and safety, governance and regional director’s score for innovation and organisation.

“Marks are allotted for each thematic area totaling 100 per cent. When the reviews of all hospitals are completed, a league table is created that ranks all the hospitals in the region and the best hospital awarded,” it said.

The hospital, which was completed five years ago but not yet commissioned, provides health care to the people of both the Bia East and Bia West Districts and beyond, receiving clients even from neighboring Ivory Coast and Brong Ahafo Region.

Receiving the Best Hospital Award for the first time, Dr Coomson said, it took the hard work and dedication to duty of the amazing staff and management of the hospital to achieve such a feat.

He said despite numerous challenges, the management had strived hard to provide the motivated staff with the necessary logistics and conducive environment to make both clients and relatives comfortable in seeking health care in the hospital.

“Some of the innovations that earned the hospital first place included local manufacture of liquid soap, four per cent Chlorine solution, alcohol based hand sanitizer, syrup cough mixtures, syrup paracetamol and mixtures of Antacids, among others.

“The management also instituted the policy of One Nurse – One Thermometer, which has prolonged the lifespan of thermometers in the hospital,” he added.

Dr Coomson said the formation of blood availability had also improved the availability of blood for severely anaemic children and pregnant women who needed blood to survive.

He called on government facilitate the commissioning of the hospital to enable it to start the second phase of the project, adding that, currently the block meant-for children are being shared between the children and adult males.

The Maternity block is also being shared between adult females and pregnant women.

“The hospital needs a separate male and female wards, Reproductive and Child Health Units, Specials wing – Dental, ENT, Eye, Nutrition, laundry and kitchen.

“The hospital is saddled with having to pay salaries of 56 temporal staff from its meager Internally Generated Funds (IGF),” he said, and appealed to government to provide financial clearance for these temporal staff so that they could save enough IGF to improve infrastructure in the hospital.