Business news from Ukraine

Multidisciplinary medical center “Leleka” plans to extend the international certificate of JCI (Joint Commission International), confirming quality standards in healthcare, said the operating director of the medical center Vadim Zukin.

“In December 2022, Leleka Multidisciplinary Medical Center provided the JCI accreditation union with confirmation of its activities and the certificate was extended for one year. In December 2023, we plan to undergo a full online verification by international auditors,” he told Interfax-Ukraine on the eve of World Patient Safety Day, which is celebrated on September 17.

According to Zukin, a big advantage of JCI is that its implementation “requires constant life according to certain standards, so directly preparing for inspections does not take much time, because we fulfill all the requirements on a daily basis.”

Commenting on the possibility of complying with JCI standards during martial law, Zukin emphasized that “JCI standards when implemented are deeply rooted in the corporate culture of the hospital, and medics even in times of war can’t imagine their activities in a different way than with compliance with JCI standards.”

“When the Obstetrics Department of Leleka Medical Center operated for several months at a public maternity hospital in 2022 for objective reasons, our management did not aim to operate there according to JCI standards. However, due to the fact that all employees of our team can no longer work in any other way, we did our best to comply with JCI standards even during the period of temporary relocation,” he said.

At the same time, Zukin does not expect the intensification of obtaining international certificates by Ukrainian clinics in the near future. At the same time, he believes that a number of large private Ukrainian clinics are ready to implement such standards.

“Such a number of hospitals with JCI accreditation, as, for example, in Israel or the UAE, in the near future in Ukraine should not be expected. But there are indeed several large private hospitals, which, I am convinced, are able to raise their level to JCI standards and get accreditation. Obviously, if there had not been a full-scale war, there would be more medical centers accredited by this prestigious system,” he said.

Zukin noted that “due to Russia’s military aggression, most private medical centers have faced significant financial problems, the solution of which requires a lot of time, resources and efforts. Nevertheless, all of them definitely continue to comply with the standards of quality and safety of hospital operations, without weakening the control of this area.”

“Obviously, we are not talking about JCI accreditation for public institutions right now. At least not in the near future. Among the reasons are economic factors, in particular, insufficient differentiation of NHIS tariffs for medical care, depending on the level of quality and safety,” he said.

Zukin noted that “the quality of medicine is not measured only by JCI standards, there are other, less popular, but serious quality control systems.”

“There is an example of other countries, such as the Czech Republic, where they took JCI standards as a basis for reforming their own national accreditation system,” he said.

Joint Commission International (USA) certification is considered the most prestigious international accreditation system for medical institutions, which aims to stimulate continuous improvement of the world’s medical organizations and their compliance with high internationally agreed requirements. The use of JCI standards implies the highest level of medical organization.

JCI accreditation is regarded as the gold standard of quality in healthcare in the world.

Currently, JCI accredited healthcare organizations in the United States and more than 85 other countries around the world. JCI standards are recognized as the highest level of medical quality and safety by the World Health Organization.