Health service accreditation reinforces a mindset of high- performance human resource management: lessonsfrom an Australian study

Objective. To investigate if an accreditation program facilitates healthcare organisations (HCOs) to evolve and maintain high performance human resource management (HRM) systems. Design. Cross sectional multi-method study. Setting and participants. Healthcare organisations participating in the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards Evaluation and Quality Improvement Program (EQuIP) between 2007-11. Main outcome measures. Ratings across the EQuIP HRM ratings, clinical performance measure, surveyor reports and interview data. Results. HCOs identified as high performing on accreditation HRM criteria seek excellence primarily because of internal motivations linked to best practice. Participation in an accreditation program is a secondary and less significant influence. Notwithstanding, the accreditation program provides the HCO opportunity for internal and external review and assessment of their performance; the accreditation activities are reflective learning and feedback events. Conclusions. This study demonstrates that HCOs that pursue high performing HRM systems use participation in an accreditation program as an opportunity. Their organisational mindset is to use the program as a tool by which to reflect and obtain feedback on their performance so to maintain or improve their management of staff and