The Health Care Accreditation Council (“HCAC”) aims to promote quality improvement and patient safety through accreditation, capacity strengthening and consulting across Jordan and the Arab region. In 2022, the International Hospital Federation established the Geneva Sustainability Centre with a mission to equip hospital leaders with the information, tools and skills to deliver low-carbon, resilient and sustainable healthcare.

On 25 September 2024, during ISQua’s 40^th International Conference taking place in Istanbul, Turkey, both organizations entered into a Collaboration Agreement to support sustainability leadership in HCAC’s healthcare network. This collaboration will be structured around three pillars:

Capacity strengthening with sustainability workshops and training: the Geneva Sustainability Centre will deliver its learning programme to HCAC’s hospital leaders, in Jordan and online. The aim is to strengthen their sustainability competencies and provide key information and tools to address the required organizational changes.

Accreditation standards and the Global Health Impact chapter: HCAC will become the first organization to get a licence to use the Global Health Impact (GHI) chapter, which includes environmental sustainability accreditation standards for hospitals. The GHI chapter was co-developed by the Geneva Sustainability Centre and Joint Commission International (JCI) and published in July 2024.

A continuous collaboration: the Geneva Sustainability Centre and HCAC will work together to progressively integrate sustainability across healthcare delivery in HCAC’s network. Additional areas of collaboration will be explored based on HCAC’s objectives, needs, and future developments.

Building sustainability and climate resilience in healthcare systems varies for each country and region. The purpose of the IHF’s Geneva Sustainability Centre is to help healthcare stakeholders and hospital leaders chart the way forward in their own context. The IHF and its Geneva Sustainability Centre are honoured to support HCAC, an IHF Full Member since 2020, on its journey to raise awareness and act upon climate change through the capacity building of its hospital leaders.