Our commitment
Quality and safety
Our goal is zero harm: no patient hurt by the care that was meant to help them. In April 2024 we set out to become a high reliability hospital and to earn international accreditation. This page shows how far we’ve come.
Our goal: zero harm
- Programme began
- April 8, 2024
- Standards
- 1,000+ measurable elements
- New policies
- More than 100 so far
“High reliability” is a way of working borrowed from fields such as aviation, where serious mistakes are rare because everyone is trained to expect them, to catch them early and to say something. In a hospital it means the porter, the nurse, the surgeon and the cashier all treat safety as part of their own job.
At Andrews it is now written into the work itself. Staff across the hospital, in clinical roles and in the offices, are asked to practise four habits:
- Situational awareness
- Attention to detail
- Speaking up for safety
- Continuous improvement
The effort is led by the President and Chief Executive Officer, Donmayne Gyles, and the Chief Medical Officer, Dr Francene Gayle.
The road to accreditation
International accreditation means an outside body has examined how a hospital works, against the same standards used by leading hospitals around the world, and found that it measures up. It is earned over years.
- April 2024
The programme begins
Two days after the hospital’s 80th anniversary service, the President launches the move to become a high reliability organisation. The work is expected to take four to five years.
- 2024
International standards
Working with Joint Commission International, the hospital starts aligning its processes with more than 1,000 measurable elements, from hand hygiene and equipment sterilisation to using two identifiers for every patient.
- End of 2024
The first measure of progress
An internal assessment against those standards more than doubles, from about 15 percent at the start to about 33 percent.
- January 2025
MRI and a cardiac cath lab
Fewer patients need to be transferred or referred elsewhere for scans and heart procedures.
- Mid-2025
More than 100 new policies
New and revised policies are in place across the hospital, with more following as each standard is addressed.
- July 2026
The DAISY Award
Andrews becomes the DAISY Foundation’s first partner hospital in Jamaica, recognising nurses for skilled and compassionate care.
Our laboratory is on a path of its own. With help from Loma Linda University Health and Adventist Health International, it has been upgraded and reorganised in preparation for laboratory accreditation.
Figures as reported by the hospital’s leadership in the Jamaica Observer, July 13, 2025.
What you’ll notice as a patient
- We ask who you are, often
- Before any medicine, test or procedure, staff confirm your name and date of birth. Two identifiers, every time.
- Clean hands
- Staff clean their hands before and after touching you. You’re welcome to ask if you didn’t see it.
- Sterile equipment
- How instruments are cleaned, sterilised and stored is one of the standards we are measured against.
How you can help
Patients and families are part of the safety team. You know yourself better than anyone does, and you are the one person present for every step of your care.
- Speak up. If something looks wrong, or different from what you were told, say so.
- Bring your medicine list, including herbal remedies and supplements.
- Tell us your allergies every time you’re asked.
- Ask what each medicine and test is for.
- Clean your hands, and ask your visitors to do the same.
- Before you go home, repeat your instructions back to your nurse so you’re both sure.
Nursing excellence
Nurses spend more time with patients than anyone else in a hospital, and the quality of nursing shapes almost everything a patient experiences.
- The DAISY Award
- Jamaica’s first DAISY hospital. Patients and families nominate nurses for extraordinary care. Nominate a nurse
- 99 percent
- The patient satisfaction rating our Maternity Unit has kept for several years.
- Twice honoured
- Our maternity nurses won the Barbara Payton Trophy for Nursing Department of the Year in 2012 and 2017.
Five pillars
Since 2023 the hospital’s administration has organised its work around five pillars. Quality runs through all of them.
- People
- Service quality
- Operational efficiency
- Brand recognition and growth
- Financial stability
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