Dr Au Yong (second right) presents a souvenir to Abang Johari, with Abu Bakar (left) and Dr Sim (back) looking on. — Information Department Photo
KUCHING (Oct 3): Normah Medical Specialist Centre (NMSC) has embarked on accreditation exercises for it to develop into becoming a hospital with the quality and standards similar to a first-world facility.
According to NMSC managing director and chief executive officer Dato Dr Au Yong Kien Hoe, the centre’s vision is to create a state-of-the-art hospital where the only interest of the hospital is the interest of the patient and where patient advocacy, patient safety and rights form the core pillars of hospital practice.
“Normah has a strategic plan in relation to the service that it provides and will provide in the future.
“This process includes an analysis of hospital activity, its capacity, facilities and population growth.
“The plan will provide a strategic focus and trust for future direction of the hospital, which will be more patient-centred, more holistic, as well as creating the ultimate patient experience,” he said at the launch of NMSC’s new CT scanner, high-tech cardiac catheterisation system, and MRI scanner yesterday, where Premier of Sarawak Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg officiated at the event.
Adding on, Dr Au Yong pointed out that NMSC had come a long way from being a 130-bed, not-for-profit medical and surgical centre, to a world-class healthcare provider that had achieved many accolades including the Malaysian Society for Quality in Health (MSQH) with full certification since 2005.
“NMSC was also officially granted the prestigious Joint Commission International (JCI) accreditation, the leading industry benchmark for measuring the delivery of quality healthcare.
“Normah is the only private hospital in Borneo at this time to be awarded JCI accreditation for four consecutive terms, namely 2011- 2013, 2014- 2017, 2017-2020, and 2021-2023.”
He said this distinction not only reaffirmed NMSC to quality and compliance with the highest standard of medical care to its patients, but also marked another milestone in this endeavour to be the preferred health care in the region.
Dr Au Yong also said as an accredited hospital, NMSC always emphasised on its strategic improvement priorities for excellences in quality healthcare services via adopting the International Patient Safety Goals; implementing best practices and guidelines to improve and standardise clinical care; risk management; cost and efficiency in utilization and management of resources; and customer satisfaction.
“As we develop NMSC into a medical institution, we are also maintaining close collaboration with various local universities such as Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) for clinical research and development of different codes of excellence.
“Collaborative projects between the hospital and academia can be used to develop cost effective, evidence-based practice to improve healthcare outcomes,” he said.
He said in March this year, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between Unimas and Sarawak Medical Centre Sdn Bhd to provide the university’s medical research and collaboration to strengthen medical expertise and education services while exploring collaboration opportunities in the field of research.
Also present were Deputy Premier Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian and State Secretary Dato Sri Mohamad Abu Bakar Marzuki.