The IHH Quality Summit 2026 brought more than 400 employees and partners to Kuala Lumpur on 15 and 16 October 2026. Held under the theme “Outcome by Design”, the flagship event by IHH Healthcare celebrated 34 award-winning teams, individuals and projects from across its multinational network.
The message at IHH Quality Summit 2026 was clear: good care does not happen by accident. It is planned around the patient, measured and shared.
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Health Minister Backs Measurable Improvement at IHH Quality Summit 2026
Delivering the keynote address, YB Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, Minister of Health Malaysia, praised IHH Malaysia’s work on value-driven outcomes and shared learning across its hospitals. He said such disciplines help make improvement “measurable, transferable and sustained”.
He also urged public-private partnerships to reach into prevention, primary care, education and research. “Partnership should not only help us treat sickness better. It should help us build health better,” he said.
Turning Scale into Better Care
Dr Prem Kumar Nair, Group Chief Executive Officer of IHH Healthcare, said: “Our footprint becomes powerful when knowledge transfers across teams, hospitals, and even markets.” Shared learning, he added, helps teams understand why outcomes vary and spread leading practices to more patients.
Dr Kamal Amzan, Chief Executive Officer of IHH Healthcare Malaysia and Chairman of the 11th IHH Quality Summit, put it simply: “Quality cannot be inspected at the end; it has to be designed into the way we work.” The next task, he said, is making sure a good idea does not stop at the hospital where it began.
34 Winners Across 11 Award Categories
This year’s winners came from Malaysia, Singapore, India, Türkiye, Hong Kong and Brunei. Categories included Quality Improvement Project Awards, Medical Excellence, Patient Safety (Best Catch), Service Excellence, Innovation, AI Hackathon and Laboratory Advancement Poster Awards.
Malaysia
- Gleneagles Hospital Johor & Premier Integrated Rehab: A redesigned Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) pathway halved hospital stays after colorectal surgery from 10 days to five, with zero readmissions and zero surgical site infections.
- Pantai Hospital Ipoh: An ERAS pathway for coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) patients cut surgical site infections from 12.2% to zero over six consecutive months. Learn about coronary artery disease and heart health.
- Premier Integrated Rehab: A digital workflow across 15 rehab centres cut daily census processing from 420 minutes to six.
- Premier Integrated Labs: Its Reference Core Laboratory in Ampang adopted My Green Lab practices, cutting electricity use by 24% and paper use by 55%.
Singapore
- Gleneagles Hospital Singapore: A digital discharge tracker cut average bed turnaround time from 212 minutes to 144.
- Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital: Simple theatre changes cut perioperative skin injuries to zero, now adopted across all IHH hospitals in Singapore.
- Mount Elizabeth Hospital: Redesigned workflows cut the time to start high-flow oxygen therapy from 43 minutes to 17.6, with every patient now treated within the 20-minute target.
India
- Gleneagles Hospital Parel: Wastewater recycling raised treated-water reuse from 32.2% to 41.6%, avoiding an estimated 7.34 tonnes of CO₂ emissions a year.
- Fortis Hospital Vashi: A reusable bolster for patient positioning improved comfort and healing for bedridden patients.
- Fortis Hospital Mulund: Wearable devices and a central command centre now monitor high-risk patients after intensive care, bringing emergency Code Blue events close to zero.
Expert Panels and an AI Hackathon at IHH Quality Summit 2026
Dr Stefan Larsson, Chairman and Co-Founder of the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM), moderated the first panel on what value means for patients and how patient-reported outcomes can guide care.
The second panel, moderated by Adjunct Associate Professor Keith Lim, Group Chief Medical Officer of IHH Healthcare, gathered leaders from medicine, nursing, pharmacy and allied health on making improvements last.
The IHH Quality Summit 2026 also showcased the Future of Work: AI Agents in Action Hackathon, where teams turned more than 200 ideas into AI agents that streamline workflows.
Why It Matters for Patients
Shorter stays, fewer infections and faster treatment are results patients feel directly. By sharing proven practices, IHH hopes more hospitals can deliver the same outcomes.
Award-winning projects and panel highlights are available on the official IHH Quality Summit 2026 website. For more stories like this, visit our Wellness and Health section.
