International accreditation: Patients’ guarantee of excellent care

Accreditation from an independent, respected international body is one of the most objective ways by which patients can gauge the quality of care provided by a hospital. That is why St. Luke’s Medical Center has tirelessly worked and continues to work on achieving international accreditation.

Four years ago, St. Luke’s became the first hospital in the Philippines and only the second of 26 in Asia to receive accreditation from Joint Commission International (JCI), the world’s most prestigious healthcare accreditation body. After undergoing a stringent weeklong survey conducted in November 2006, St. Luke’s was officially re-accredited by JCI, making it the country’s first and only hospital and only the second in Asia to be accredited twice by the respected international organization.

In its official letter of re-accreditation, JCI lauded St. Luke’s commitment to continuously raise quality patient care to higher levels and to ensure patient safety.

It recognized St. Luke’s consistent compliance with stringent international health quality standards, achievement of the highest level of care possible, improvement of patient outcomes, and creation of an environment for continuous improvement. JCI re-accreditation places St. Luke’s in an elite group of healthcare providers around the world that not only provides high-quality care but is also committed to continuously improving the quality of care.

JCI is the international arm of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), the oldest and most prestigious healthcare accreditation organization in the world.

An independent, non-profit organization, JCAHO evaluates and accredits nearly 15,000 healthcare organizations and programs in the United States. JCI accreditation is recognized around the world as a symbol of quality reflecting an organization’s commitment to meeting strict performance standards. To earn and maintain the JCI’s Gold Seal of Approval, an organization must undergo an onsite survey by a JCI survey team at least every three years. Since 1951, JCI has maintained stringent standards that focus on improving the quality and safety of care provided by healthcare organizations. Its comprehensive accreditation process evaluates an organization’s compliance with these standards and other accreditation requirements.

St. Luke’s Breast Center, the most comprehensive multidisciplinary breast care center in the country, exemplifies the hospital’s commitment to continuously providing excellent patient care. It is a total breast care center staffed by a multi-specialty team of healthcare professionals, providing expertise in evaluation, management, and follow-up, and addressing the emotional needs of patients and their loved ones. This team is composed of surgeons, radiologists, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, plastic surgeons, pathologists, psychiatrists, and other support staff.

The center has state-of-the-art equipment for breast cancer screening and evaluation, such as mammography and high-resolution breast ultrasound units. It also has cutting-edge facilities and equipment for breast biopsies, such as Fine-Needle Aspiration (FNA), Core Needle, Incision and Excision biopsies as well as a minimally invasive (involving small incision) vacuum-assisted breast biopsy device (mammotome) and Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy (SLNB).

The Breast Center realizes that improving the quality of patient care is a dynamic, never-ending process of acquiring new knowledge through research. Thus, it has begun collecting, collating, and analyzing patient data to build a comprehensive Breast Disease Data Bank. This major research endeavor will provide definitive data, from a private hospital’s perspective, on the incidence, prevalence and treatment outcomes of breast diseases and breast cancer in the country. The information derived from the data bank will enable us to make the quality and outcome of patient care at St. Luke’s even better.

Dr. Alejandro Dizon heads the Breast Center at the St. Luke’s Medical Center. For inquiries, please contact 723-0101 ext. 5206 or visit the Breast Center, 12th Floor, North Tower, Cathedral Heights Building Complex, St. Luke’s Medical Center.