Nearly 300 healthcare providers working across Qatar’s health sector have received specialist training to improve sepsis and venous thromboembolism (VTE) care, a Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) official has said. 
Nasser al-Naimi, deputy chief of quality, HMC, and director of the Hamad Healthcare Quality Institute (HHQI), said that since the institute was established by HMC in 2014, hundreds of healthcare professionals working across the country have joined forces to collaborate on a number of improvement projects, all aimed at ensuring the best possible patient care.
“Training staff in quality improvement and creating opportunities to share this expertise across the health system is essential to helping an organisation deliver better and safer patient care. HHQI is a first-of-its-kind resource that aims to facilitate sustainable healthcare improvement,” said al-Naimi. 
In recent years, the HHQI has made tremendous progress supporting healthcare organisations in their quality improvement efforts to deliver safer, more effective, patient-centred care. Last year, the institute successfully initiated the National Patient Safety Collaborative (NPSC) in partnership with the US-based Institute for Healthcare Improvement. The NPSC aims to raise safety standards across the country’s public healthcare sector, with an initial focus on reducing sepsis-related mortality and improving the management of patients at risk of VTE, a disease that includes deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism.
“Healthcare staff understanding, and adhering to, key international best practice protocols in relation to the care of patients with suspected sepsis and VTE is among the tangible achievements of the National Patient Safety Collaborative. Many facilities now document a 95% compliance with the Sepsis Six – a bundle of medical therapies designed to reduce mortality in patients with sepsis. They are also seeing a VTE risk assessment rate of nearly 100% in higher-risk patients, such as trauma patients and high-risk pregnancies,” noted al-Naimi.
To date, nearly 300 healthcare professionals, working in 38 teams across 12 facilities have engaged in sessions designed to help them learn and work together on select improvement projects. With participants from different disciplines across HMC, PHCC, Sidra Medicine, and QRC, the groups have been coached on how to support and encourage a culture of continuous learning, improvement, and safety across the healthcare system.
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