Official endorsement of Turanga Health’s services

Media Statement

Friday 21 March 2014

Official endorsement of Turanga Health’s services

Patients looked after by Turanga Health can rest assured that when they come into contact with Turanga Health staff and programmes they are in safe hands.

Turanga Health has proved itself to be a fully roadworthy health organisation having being awarded the equivalent of a "warrant of fitness" certificate from New Zealand health audit agency DAA*.

Known as accreditation, it’s a testing process for an organisation. It’s like signing up for a voluntary warrant of fitness and getting recognition that the organisation is performing well, says Turanga Health CEO Reweti Ropiha.

Depending on the level of quality an organisation demonstrates, it can earn accreditation for anything between one and four years. Turanga Health has earned four-year accreditation.

"We wanted to go through the accreditation programme so we knew our whānau and patients were getting the best possible care. We did this for them. They deserve the best and our team has proved that our care is definitely that," says Mr Ropiha.

“The idea of accreditation is to improve the quality of health organisations in New Zealand. To achieve it, it takes months of self-assessment of your processes. And it’s about finding any areas that need ironing out,” added Mr Ropiha.

Turanga Health Quality Manager Shirley Keown said achieving the four-year accreditation has taken months of team effort.

"We have tested ourselves against the highest standards in New Zealand. It's taken months and months to do. It's huge.”

She says going through accreditation meant if a problem was found, the organisation could fix it and make things even better. It’s the second time Turanga Health has been through the DAA accreditation process. The first was four years ago and Turanga Health performed well, necessitating only minor recommendations to processes and completing the periodic review.

Accreditors came for two days in December 2013 and because this was the second round of accreditation DAA set the bar high, says Ms Keown. DAA auditors looked at many processes, policies and procedures including the way Turanga Health maintains the privacy of personal health information; access for whānau with disabilities; recalling tamariki for immunisation; job descriptions; orientation; infection control; and ongoing educational activities for staff. Many of these match up with goals in the Turanga Health Quality Plan.

Ms Keown now has the pleasurable job now of organising for half a dozen large accreditation certificates to be framed and displayed around Turanga Health’s buildings for the public and staff to reflect on.

Ends

*The DAA Group is one of New Zealand’s leading providers of quality and risk management auditing services to the health and disability sector. For more information see http://www.daagroup.co.nz/

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