Hospitals and health service providers only have about 3 weeks left to nominate their outstanding projects and programs to the IHF Awards. Winners will be revealed during the 43rd IHF World Hospital Congress in November. Gold awardees will gain exposure through IHF channels and healthcare media network, have a chance to publish their work in the IHF Journal, be considered for the IHF Webinars, and receive monetary prize to attend and present at the Congress.

You can submit entries for the following:

• IHF/Dr Kwang Tae Kim Grand Award (open only to IHF members and their affiliates)
• ​​​​​​​IHF/Bionexo Excellence Award for Corporate Social Responsibility
• IHF/EOH Excellence Award for Leadership and Management in Healthcare
• IHF/Austco Excellence Award for Quality & Safety and Patient-centered Care.​​​​​​​

Don’t miss this opportunity, start preparing your entries now! For more information on the categories, eligibility, prizes and selection process, click the button below.

Standardized, replicable and comparable metrics for quality of medical care in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are lacking. A recent study conducted by Diego Rios-Zertuche et al. in several Latin American countries addresses this gap and presents a framework to identify variations on quality of care, based on quality indicators constructed for maternal, neonatal and child care. The study underscores that collecting data for quality indicators at scale in LMICs is now possible with adequate resources and technical expertise.

Many governments in sub-Saharan Africa are seeking to establish public–private partnerships (PPPs) for the financing and operation of new healthcare facilities and services. This paper seeks to inform debates about the use of PPPs in the region by describing the planning and operation of a high-profile case in Lesotho. It highlights several beneficial impacts of the transaction alongside a range of key challenges. Mark Hellowell suggests that future proposals for PPPs need to be exposed to more effective scrutiny and challenge, taking into account state capacity to proficiently manage and pay for contracted services.

Health and social care systems, organisations and providers are under pressure to organise care around patients’ needs with constrained resources. Therefore, barriers must be addressed to implement patient-centred care (PCC) successfully. This study conducted by Kira I. Hower et al. examines the determinants of PCC implementation from decision makers’ perspectives and emphasizes the crucial role of several determinants at the organisational inner setting and the individual level. The results provide possible starting points for initiating the tailoring of interventions and implementation strategies towards more patient-centredness.

Since its establishment in 1951, the Japan Hospital Association had been aiming to improve hospitals and help them fulfill their mission, as well as to contributing to the promotion of social welfare by establishing medical ethics and by improving the quality of medical services in hospitals. To face the changing medical services environment due to a declining birth rate, increased life expectancy and other factors, JHA changed its organizational structure to become the General Association of Hospital Associations of Japan in 2012. The code of ethics was then established in relation to the establishment of medical ethics and the JHA will continue to strengthen the quality of medical care and the quality of management with regard to the improvement of medical services in hospitals.

One of the characteristics of the Japanese health care system is the reimbursement of health care providers made in two different ways: through the Medical Point Fee System and through the Diagnosis Procedure Combination (DPC) System. In Medical Point Fee System, fees paid by insurers to providers depend on a number of points assigned to identified medical procedures. On the other hand, DPC is an inclusive payment.

Dr. Komatsumoto is vice president of the Japan Hospital Association (JHA) and is candidate to the IHF Governing Council members elections in 2019 to represent Western Pacific. The Japan Hospital Association brings together about 2500 public and private hospitals.
One of Japan's major challenges is the rapid aging of the population, accelerated after 2025 due to the baby boom of the late 1940s. To meet this challenge, the Government of Japan supports community-based integrated care systems to help elderly people become independent.
Dr. Komatsumoto expects IHF to link between Japan’s and the world hospitals, and JHA to contribute to IHF by providing unique experiences, for instance in a rapidly ageing society.