All hospitals and primary healthcare centres in the country will have to implement the Health Service Performance Agreement (HSPA) from April 1, 2014 with a grace period until March 31, 2015.
The new agreement has been launched by the Supreme Council of Health (SCH) with the public and private healthcare providers in Qatar.
The HSPA will enable the healthcare providers to use a common framework for measurement and assessment of the accurate and regular collection of data.
The HSPA also makes it mandatory for all the hospitals and primary healthcare centres to report regularly to the SCH on a selected set of comprehensive and balanced performance indicators.
“This is first-of-its-kind initiative in Qatar and the region to monitor and improve the overall performance of the health system in Qatar,” Dr Faleh Mohamed Hussain, assistant secretary general for Policy Affairs SCH, said at the launch event yesterday.
Dr Mohamed al-Thani, director of Public Health Department at SCH, and a number of officials from SCH were among those present on the occasion.
During the grace period, the results of the indicators will not be used to judge or sanction the providers and the findings not publicised.
The main objective of implementing HSPA between the SCH and the healthcare providers is to enable the providers to use a common framework for measurement and assessment for the accurate and regular collection of data.
“It will also improve the quality of healthcare services, monitor and measure the overall performance of the health system, and strengthen transparency in the health system, which would help achieve the ultimate outcome of enhanced health status for the population of Qatar.”
Dr Hussain pointed out that the HSPA is an important step to achieve the second objective of the strategy of Qatar National Health Strategy 2011-2016 of attaining integrated healthcare offering high-quality services through public and private institutions.
“This will connect and integrate healthcare services and ensure high quality and effective use of information and communication. All this would enable us to achieve a comprehensive world-class healthcare system in line with the Qatar National Vision 2030.”
The HSPA was developed and implemented in response to the needs of the reporting system in Qatar. This will ensure the collection of standardised indicators by healthcare providers and report to the SCH on a regular basis. HSPA provides integrated information to SCH for decisions making based on evidence.
The information derived through the HSPA in a standard format gives the opportunity to compare the performance of these indicators between healthcare institutions in Qatar, as well as between Qatar and other countries.
As such, mandatory HSPA is a critical tool for collecting timely, relevant and reliable healthcare information for the governance of the health system in Qatar.
Dr Faleh Mohamed Hussain announcing the HSPA yesterday.
