Quality and Safety

Mater Private Network Quality & Patient Safety framework is managed by the Quality and Risk Department of each of our hospitals and overseen by the Group Director of Quality & Patient Experience. 

Quality in healthcare is fundamental to the safe delivery of patient care.  The Quality & Risk Departments are part of a framework that oversees a number of safety and quality functions within the hospital facilities including:

• Accreditation and Standards Compliance Management
• Continuous Quality Improvement
• Patient Experience and Outcome Measures
• Quality and Patient Safety Data Monitoring and Analysis
• Risk Management, Safety and Health and Fire Safety
• Policy and Procedure Development and Document Control
• Data Subject Access Requests 

The Quality department provides continual communication to staff to drive continuous improvement. The data and results of audits and outcome measures help focus departments on areas of improvement. The quality department provides feedback to staff via multiple platforms including Quality and Patient Safety reports, communication dashboards, newsletters, individual ward/department reports on key processes of care such as hand hygiene compliance and outcomes of care such as falls and near miss incidents.

JCI Quality & Patient Safety Accreditation

Joint Commission International (JCI) is an international healthcare accreditation provider that identifies, measures, and shares best practices in quality and patient safety across the world. They provide leadership and innovative solutions to help healthcare organisations across all settings improve patient safety and quality performance and outcomes.  This is the gold standard for quality in healthcare across the globe and the new 7th edition healthcare standards have >1,200 measurable elements within its accreditation standards.

In 2023, we once again retained our JCI gold standard accreditation for an 8th year in Dublin and for a 4th year in Cork, with all 10 of our sites undergoing the assessment. The evaluations, which are conducted by a team of international healthcare experts, are carried out every 3 years.

Standards focus on the areas that most directly impact patient care. These include both clinical care and organisational management standards, such as access to care, assessment of patients, infection control, patient and family rights, and education. Standards also address facility management and safety,  staff education and qualifications, quality improvement and patient safety, organisational governance and leadership, and management of information and communications.

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