The Eastern Regional Hospital Laboratory has received an ISO 15189 certification from the United States Pharmacopoeial for quality and competence in medical laboratory management.

The Eastern Regional Hospital Laboratory is the first Ghana Health Service institution in that part of the country to attain the Internationally recognized ISO 15189 certification.

Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, 37 Military Hospital and the National Public Health Reference Lab happen to be the only facilities with an ISO certification in the country.

The United States Pharmacopoeia provided the necessary technical support to the Eastern Regional Hospital over a period of 14 months to enable the facility to achieve this historic recognition.

Reading a speech on behalf of the Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman Manu at a short event for the presentation of the certificate in Koforidua, the Director of Nursing and Midwifery, Dr. Barnabas Kwame Yeboah, indicated that the certification is a major achievement for the Ghanaian Health sector.

“The Ministry of Health recognizes that the attainment of ISO 15189:2022 by the Eastern Regional Hospital is a major achievement for the Ghanaian health sector as, it will improve on its robust operational system, encourage dynamism, as well as ensure global acceptance of its results. Today’s achievement is one part of the Ministry of Health’s goal of improving the quality of public and private laboratory services nationwide to ensure timely and accurate results for patients care and outbreak response”.

The Senior Vice President of the United States Pharmacopoeia, Dr. Emily Kaine in an interview with Citi News underscored the need for attaining the internationally recognized certification to boost the confidence of patients and clinicians.

“ISO 15189 is an international mark of quality services and care provision. So having achieved this mark can get patients and clinicians confidence in timely and quality testing with informed patient care which is critical to accurate diagnosis. Certification is a mark of quality, but it doesn’t mean other labs who have not attained ISO certification are not qualified, however it is important to achieve it and the best action is to learn from the lab that has the certification by disseminating the models for others to learn”.

The Council Chairman of the Ministry of Health, Dr Sefa Bediako also noted the importance of the certification to health care provisions for citizens of neighbouring countries as well.

“Other people from neighbouring countries will be coming to Ghana for health services and what that means is that we will be providing services for people across our borders, so everything we do should be international standards because of this international certificate. So it puts us to the next level where we are getting close to preparing ourselves for international medical tourism where other people can come from different countries to seek medical attention. Just like people from this country go to India and other countries just because of their accreditation and their level of service delivery is internationally recognized, so once ours is also certified, then other people can also come in.”

The Eastern Regional Minister, Seth Kwame Acheampong, who was happy about the success chalked by the hospital, promised the government’s support to improve all aspects of the deliveries to make the hospital the number one referral centre.