Member Spotlight: Al-Ahli Hospital
Al-Ahli Hospital in Qatar is a 250-bed private general hospital recognised for its modern facilities and strong focus on patient experience. It has been an ACHSI member for ten years.
As ACHS International (ACHSI) continues to celebrate healthcare excellence worldwide, we share outstanding achievements among our Members. This month, we are proud to highlight Al-Ahli Hospital, Qatar and share insights into their journey towards ACHSI accreditation. Operational for 10 years, the hospital is recognised by the Qatari community as a world-class health facility with elements of hospitality embedded within.
Tell us a little bit about Al-Ahli Hospital
Al-Ahli Hospital is one of the largest private hospitals in the State of Qatar and has been recognised by the Qatari community as a world-class, state of the art facility. The hospital provides excellence in clinical care and is renowned for extending typical Qatari hospitality to ensure exceptional guest care, safety, comfort and privacy always.
The hospital is equipped with the best modern and innovative medical technology and has developed and implemented advanced healthcare methods and operations across many specialty areas. All services are facilitated by a team of highly qualified and experienced healthcare professionals supported by exceptional non-clinical teams.
How many staff do you have working there, and how many clients?
Al-Ahli Hospital currently has 1,400 staff and in 2024, cared for 304,240 visiting guests, 71,487 emergency presentations and 11,023 admissions.
What was the process like preparing for accreditation?
Al-Ahli Hospital has, since its inception, been focused on providing high standards of care to the Qatar community.
In 2012, the hospital embarked on a formal process to optimise clinical and support services to ensure alignment with international best practice standards under the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards Evaluation and Quality Improvement Program (EQuIP) Accreditation Standards. This initiative was viewed as taking the next step in an ongoing journey of excellence.
By striving for international healthcare accreditation, Al-Ahli Hospital was committing to a more structured approach to service delivery and a more demanding system of continuous quality improvement. By partnering with ACHSI, Al-Ahli Hospital was embracing an opportunity to evaluate current practices and make changes to further enhance the quality of all clinical and support services.
An ambition to achieve international healthcare accreditation created an energy that was well embraced by healthcare practitioners of all disciplines and by non-clinical professionals and supporting staff. One of the major benefits of the ACHSI program is its recognition of the critical role that non-clinical staff play in optimising guest outcomes and satisfaction levels.
Full Accreditation status was first achieved in 2014 after much hard work in implementing the EQuIP standards and updating practices across clinical and non-clinical domains. Now, in 2025, more than ten years on, we are approaching the beginning of our fourth accreditation cycle and have proven that our improved systems have not only been maintained but enhanced over the intervening period.
How was the assessment experience? Was there anything in particular you learnt?
Throughout each accreditation cycle we have grown stronger as an organisation and have benefited from the guiding light provided by ACHSI.
Our early experience confirmed the notion that achieving international healthcare accreditation is not an easy task and that maintaining it is even tougher. However, the EQuIP system creates an ever-evolving process that drives continuous quality improvement and the requirement for strong connections between clinical and non-clinical departments. This is key as it is a system that evaluates every part of the hospital’s operations from facilities management to the provision of complex clinical care and everything in between. Importantly, the evolution of the system ensures a rigorous process using current and emerging best practices.
The importance of staff engagement and effective leadership empowerment and support cannot be overemphasised. Front line staff have so much to offer and in our experience are eager to participate and indeed lead improvement initiatives.
How did you regard what the Quality Partner brought to your team and organisation?
ACHSI, our continuous quality improvement partner, plays a critical role in evaluating everything that we do. From onboarding procedures for new recruits to evaluating the clinical outcomes we achieve, nothing goes unnoticed. The structure of the accreditation program ensures that every function is optimised for guest safety and quality outcomes. This contributes the feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment experienced by all our staff as they contribute to safe, effective, timely, efficient and guest-centered care. All these aspects are appreciated by our guests and synonymous with the Al-Ahli Hospital brand.
The partnership model provides invaluable assistance and support from start to finish and help is always on hand if clarification, guidance or advice is required.
Do you have any advice for other members going through these programs?
Our advice to others is to embrace the challenges that implementing the EQuIP program involves. Use it as a mechanism to get everyone involved and focussed on achieving a unified goal that touches every part of the organisation. Something that everyone can be proud of and that formally recognizes the achievement of a robust and well-recognized program.
What does international accreditation mean to you and your organisation?
There is strong evidence confirming that accreditation programs improve the process of care and overall clinical outcomes.
Joining the ranks of ACHSI accredited healthcare organisations from around the world importantly means that our efforts and achievements are evaluated and recognized by international peers. This gives us much satisfaction and reassurance that our commitment to guest safety and quality is being achieved.
We thank Al-Ahli Hospital for their ongoing membership and sharing their insights and commend their dedication to excellence in patient care and continuous improvement.
We thank Al-Ahli Hospital for their ongoing membership and sharing their insights and commend their dedication to excellence in patient care and continuous improvement.