The Bermuda Hospitals Board has achieved a renewal of its accreditation in the preliminary report from Accreditation Canada, it announced today.

The preliminary report from Accreditation Canada (previously called the Canadian Council on Health Services Accreditation or CCHSA) provides a forecast result six months before the final comprehensive report is filed in order to give the healthcare organisation under review the opportunity to make further improvements, the Board said.

Among the good practices at the hospitals that were praised by the accreditation inspectors were: Improved finanes, excellent clinical education, an excellent infection control programme with very low levels of hospital-acquired infection, and led by a certified infection control practitioner, much improved physician relations, with new leadership and overall engagement of the physicians and introduction of new hospitalist programme.

Among the areas where Accreditation Canada said more work was needed were the need for BHB to continue to invest in improving its current facilities while working towards any new facilities and the need for outcomes to be consistently measured (which is in BHB’s 2008 Performance Improvement Plan), the BHB said.

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