A Global First for South Africa and Better Kidney Care

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National Renal Care has achieved a global first, earning international accreditation for an approach that puts the outcomes that matter most to kidney patients at the centre of care.

South Africa (21 September 2026) – Going for dialysis is about far more than what happens during those hours of treatment. It is about how you feel when you go home, whether you have the energy to spend time with the people you love, how your body is coping, how treatment fits into your life and, ultimately, whether you are able to keep doing the things that make life worth living.

And a South African healthcare provider has just earned global recognition for putting exactly that at the heart of kidney care.

National Renal Care (NRC) has become the first kidney care organisation in South Africa, and globally, to achieve Level 1 Enterprise Accreditation from the International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement (ICHOM). The accreditation recognises NRC’s organisation-wide implementation of ICHOM’s approach to measuring the health outcomes that matter most to patients across its network of 85 units.

“This landmark recognition of NRC’s commitment to delivering value-based healthcare establishes a pioneering foundation for continuously improving the quality of care provided to patients receiving renal care,” says Dr Chevon Clark, Chief Executive Officer of National Renal Care.

“For people living with chronic kidney disease and receiving dialysis, this means measuring a wider range of indicators to better understand the outcomes that shape a person’s everyday life beyond treatment alone.”

For people living with kidney failure, dialysis performs the vital work their kidneys can no longer do effectively, purifying the blood and removing waste. NRC centres around South Africa offer in-centre haemodialysis, home haemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis, pre-dialysis education and support. Traditionally, treatment success has largely been assessed through clinical measures. Those remain incredibly important, but NRC’s approach goes further. Across its network, the organisation also measures patients’ health, wellbeing, functioning, symptoms, treatment experience and quality of life. In other words, the person receiving the treatment becomes an important part of understanding whether that treatment is truly working for them.

“This ICHOM accreditation affirms that NRC patients’ experiences of renal care and the outcomes that matter to them are fundamental measures of healthcare quality. This systematic approach allows us to better understand the impact of kidney disease and dialysis from the patient’s perspective alongside clinical outcomes, and to identify opportunities to further improve care,” Dr Clark explains.

ICHOM is an international non-profit organisation founded in 2012 by health researchers from Harvard Business School, Boston Consulting Group and Karolinska Institute. Its work focuses on establishing standardised, patient-centred ways of measuring healthcare outcomes so providers around the world can learn, compare and improve.

For NRC patients, that approach also means having a greater role in their own healthcare. The organisation already offers resources through the NRC app, including access to medical records, exercises, meal planning, fluid intake tracking and symptom monitoring, as well as a renal plate scan feature that helps calculate nutritional value.

“Over time, consistently measuring and using outcomes can support more meaningful conversations between patients and their healthcare teams, ensuring shared decision-making and a greater focus on what each patient values most,” Dr Clark says.

The accreditation forms part of NRC’s move towards value-based healthcare, an approach that looks not only at the treatment being delivered but at the outcomes being achieved for the person receiving it.

“Our responsibility extends beyond delivering dialysis safely and effectively. We need to understand whether the care we provide is improving the outcomes and quality of life that matter to our patients,” Dr Clark says.

Dialysis keeps people alive but healthcare should also be about helping people live.

“We are deeply invested in helping the people we care for feel well enough to make more happy memories with their loved ones and to enjoy life to the fullest for many years to come,” she says.

Dr Clark credited NRC’s multidisciplinary healthcare teams for implementing the comprehensive outcome measurements required for the accreditation, while also acknowledging the patients who have actively participated in the process.

“Most of all, we appreciate how patients have embraced the opportunity to actively participate in achieving the outcomes they value,” she says.

“We see this accreditation as a catalyst for ongoing innovation that truly extends the possibilities for a better life for every patient,” Dr Clark concludes.