Galway Hospice takes two major awards

Galway Hospice has been awarded both CHKS Accreditation and ISO 9001:2008 Certification – becoming the first hospice in Ireland to achieve full accreditation across all of its services, and the first to be awarded this prestigious dual accreditation.

The service-specific accreditation programmes of CHKS (Caspe Healthcare Knowledge Systems - part of the Capita Group plc) are approved by the International Society for Quality in Healthcare (ISQua) and by the UK Accreditation Service (UKAS).

Accreditation independently validates an organisation’s commitment to continuing improvement, and its capability of providing quality services.

CHKS awards Accreditation to healthcare organisations which demonstrate that they have complied with approved international standards relating to legal and professional requirements, safety of patients, staff and visitors, patients’ rights and accepted sound organisational practice and clinical management systems in healthcare.

ISO Certification is a respected mark of quality, recognised across the world. ISO 9001:2008 is a standardised framework for a quality management system, regardless of what the user organisation does, its size, or whether it is in the public or private sector. Certification to ISO 9001:2008 provides externally verified assurance that an organisation has a proven systematic and consistent approach to the delivery of a quality management system.

“We are absolutely thrilled with confirmation of dual accreditation – it is a magnificent achievement for the entire team and certainly a moment to be savoured,” said Sean O’Healy, Chief Executive of Galway Hospice.

“Despite our significant staffing and funding constraints, and with minimal external supports available to us, we took on the challenge of meeting two separate international accreditation standards, and we are delighted to be able to say that we have succeeded with distinction, achieving one of the highest compliance  ratings on external survey ever recorded by the CHKS surveyors,” added Mr O’Healy.

For more, read this week's Connacht Sentinel.