Dear colleagues,
Nova Scotia Health has been awarded Accreditation with Commendation. This means that not only did we meet their high standards, but in many areas we went above and beyond. This calls for congratulations for each and every employee, physician, and volunteer who show up and step up to give their best every day.
Congratulations just doesn’t feel like enough praise for this achievement…especially considering the huge challenges we have all faced to get here! We have delivered our best Accreditation performance as an organization despite the added pressures of COVID-19, system overcapacity, and multiple health care transformation initiatives. None of this was easy, but it’s clear we have some of the most dedicated and resilient people working here. This report feels like confirmation of what we have known for a long time: our people are what makes Nova Scotia Health unstoppable.
Overall, Nova Scotia Health met 95.6 per cent of Accreditation Canada criteria and only had one unmet Required Organization Practice (ROP). This is a significant improvement from our previous survey in 2017. From the moment the surveyors arrived, they acknowledged our journey and applauded the enormous progress made.
We will build on this success and push forward to keep making the care experiences here safer and better for those we care about most and so we have a system we can rely on when we need it. To maintain our Accreditation with Commendation decision, follow-up actions are required to be completed and evidence submitted by November of 2023. We will share more on that in the New Year.
The full report is accessible online at https://www.nshealth.ca/files/accreditation-report-2022-pdf
I encourage you to take a moment to reflect on this accomplishment individually and with your teams. From this entire experience, it was clear that quality and patient safety is firmly embedded in the culture across Nova Scotia Health.
Kind Regards,
Karen
