Georgia Healthcare Group PLC Annual Report 2018 Strategic Report Quality standards Ensuring a high quality of medical care is essential for Georgia Healthcare Group GHG is elevating the standard of care by introducing western practices and harmonising them across its integrated network through consistent protocols and procedures. Clinicians and nurses are being retrained and the next generation of residents are getting hands-on experience and learning in flagship facilities. Compliance is assessed in annual performance reviews. Coordination of care will be enhanced through new technology platforms. Developing and implementing quality control measures on a larger How quality management structure works scale in our healthcare facilities remains the key priority for the Group. The Group operates 53 healthcare facilities, thus having an effective To ensure standardised processes for providing high-quality care in quality management structure is one of its key objectives. The quality all of our hospitals, the Group has developed the following quality working units and committees operate at both head office and referral objectives, based on national guidelines and the recommendations hospitals level. offered by international professional organisations: • Ensuring effective quality management structure. The head office Clinical Team establishes frameworks and protocols • Ensuring unified quality management approaches in the Group’s for the Group’s healthcare facilities. These include general approaches healthcare facilities. to and a set of standards of quality. The team also defines the • Ensuring standardised clinical practice assessment tools based measures and indicators that each hospital should monitor and on unified measurements (quality KPIs). report to the local committees and to the head office. Measures • Continuous improvement on principles and methodologies through and indicators (clinical quality KPIs) are selected according to the dedicated committees. JCI quality standards, and based on each hospital’s specific needs, • Implementation of scientific approaches to quality management. ensuring that patients receive high-quality care. Through defined • Implementation of interdisciplinary approaches to problem-solving KPIs, we compare progress to previous findings and international and encouragement of teamwork. benchmarks to identify the areas of improvement at each hospital. • Understanding and exceeding patient expectations. To ensure better quality control at local levels, we have set up Quality Management Programme clinical working units and clinical committees at each referral hospital, In 2015, GHG Quality Management Programme was created that reliesresponsible for execution of the defined quality control approaches on modern approaches to quality issues in healthcare. The main goal of and measures. Every working unit has a chief quality officer, a the programme was to form a new quality management structure and quality control specialist, an epidemiologist and a nurse specialising frameworks based on methodical and comprehensive assessment of in the prevention of hospital infection. Clinical working units monitor clinical practices. Major working policies and protocols were created the hospital quality KPIs and carry out their own analysis for based on national regulations and best practice principles. centralised reporting. Collected data are further analysed by hospital committees, consisting of the clinical team and the hospital’s The programme also defined specific lines of activities with the management, and the results are sent to the head office clinical involvement of the Group’s different employees, including clinical team for further consideration. At this stage, quality management and non-clinical personnel. The programme covers the following lines activities at clinics are assumed by the head office Quality Team, of activities: with the supervision of the Chief Clinical Officer. • Clinical risk management: – Overall safety The Group also operates a Clinical Quality and Safety Committee – Loss control – case reviewing at Board level, where basic principles and strategies are set. The – Complaints management Committee discusses systemic problems and identifies ways to • Quality control and improvement: improve them. The Committee also plans annual objectives and – Clinical practice work agendas. – Patient safety – Process standardisation – Customer satisfaction • Hospital infection control and prevention: – Infection control and prevention – Infection surveillance and database – AMR and rational antibiotic therapy – Disinfection and sterilisation – Waste and laundry management – Construction and renovation supervision – infection control and safety risk assessment • Implementation of electronic medical records (“EMR”). 22