Member Update - ITAES

A year and a half after the pandemic was declared, in a context slightly different from 2020, we remain uncertain about its development. Despite the uncertainty about the immediate future, at ITAES we continue working and adapting our evaluation system to the current context and future challenges. The experience allowed us to ensure health establishments’ firm conviction to continue walking the path of continuous improvement.

Most of the actions taken during 2020 were focused on adapting the institutions to demands set by COVID19 and thus guaranteeing people the conditions of quality and safety in the care process.

Many institutions carrying out the ITAES accreditation programs have maintained their action plans’ compliance; others have been able to take a break and retake them; and from the last few months, different organizations continue entering the program. ITAES, true to its principles, followed the continuous improvement path but considering the context and searching the best adaptation to it, using both available and innovative tools, looking for accompanying establishments to face challenges and furthermore, prepare them to be evaluated for accreditation and monitoring to maintain the achievement obtained.

Although ITAES had been using remote tools for many of its activities, some years before the pandemic, its use was expanded to be able to continue responding to the needs of the institutions and their members.

The use of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) through videoconference has become today an essential tool that will surely last in time.

In relation to accreditation programs, several meetings are held today between establishments’ contacts and evaluators, becoming a common methodology.

Also through technology, progress was made in the exchange of information with the establishments.

All these communication tools were consolidated into a system for the management of online evaluations that allows users (members of entities, as well as ITAES), to complete forms, carry out follow-ups, exchange materials and interact with people who participate in different stages, processes and activities of quality assessment programs.

Five surveys were completed using totally remote mechanisms obtaining very good results, sharing a very valuable experience maintaining our own continuous improvement process. We remotely evaluate compliance with the standards hundreds of kilometres away, an effective methodology that we believe will continue to be used post-pandemic, either as the main or complementary methodology; providing greater efficiency and cost reduction.

The evaluation process was an enriching experience that was carried out with a virtual evaluation methodology, very different from the previous ones, which made it possible to trace all the processes that participate from the admission of a patient, the care received and the way and status leaving the institution. The virtuality in the evaluation process, with the implementation of technological tools, implied a great challenge for everyone.

We must not forget that the pandemic was a disruptive situation for all countries and organizations, with a greater impact on health facilities, representing a global challenge in public health and macro-care.

The global health and economic system has been put under maximum stress. Governments and institutions, with different reaction periods, were giving a hard battle to an enemy that gave no truce and is not yet defeated.

In addition to this, last April 2021, ITAES suffered another unexpected impact with the sudden loss of our General Director, Ricardo Herrero. Ricardo was passionate about quality and for the last ten years he struggled to promote safety in health care, like that "serum" that is moving slowly but with the firm conviction of nurturing a system for the well-being of all.

Having gone through the evaluations by the International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua), not only of manuals and standards, but also of our organization, has allowed us to build a strong team, enabling to work organized through all statements, board of directors, staff and together with advisors too. This made it possible to maintain our focus and objectives despite the pandemic, and go beyond that, first with the prompt intervention of Dr Ricardo Otero who assumed the interim leadership for a period of three months until my appointment as CEO.

We have learned in a very short time that it is possible to overcome critical situations without losing a vision of solidarity to reach the most vulnerable. It is our responsibility since that's what it's about. We are dedicated to generating safer and more efficient Institutions, valuing the current multidimensional concept of quality, on a strategic axis in Person-Centered attention.

Dr Norberto Furfaro

CEO, INSTITUTO TÉCNICO PARA LA ACREDITACIÓN DE ESTABLECIMIENTOS DE SALUD (ITAES), Argentina