T hefirst ambulatory surgery center was established in 1970 in Phoenix, Arizona by two surgeons with a vision of providing more convenient surgical services to their community. Twelve years later, Medicare approved the first payments to ambulatory surgery centers, sparking an era of substantial growth. By 1988, there were 1000 ambulatory surgery centers in the United States, and today more than...

OBJECTIVES To investigate the effect of Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) accreditation and hospital care practices on breastfeeding rates at 1 and 4 months. METHODS All women who birthed in Queensland, Australia, from February 1 to May 31, 2010, received a survey 4 months postpartum. Maternal, infant, and hospital characteristics; pregnancy and birth complications; and infant feeding ...

Introduction: Medical tourism is one of the competitive and income industries in world and has the ability to attract tourists in the health sector and international markets are totally dependent on international accreditation. This study has been done to evaluate the capabilities of active public and private hospitals in Shiraz regarding attraction of tourists’ base on accredi...

CONFLICT OF INTEREST NONE DECLARED. INTRODUCTION Agency for healthcare quality and accreditation in Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (AKAZ) is authorized body in the field of healthcare quality and safety improvement and accreditation of healthcare institutions. Beside accreditation standards for hospitals and primary health care centers, AKAZ has also developed accreditation standards fo...

Over the past 25 years, the Joint Commission for the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations has changed its guidelines regarding religious/spiritual care of hospitalized patients to increase attention concerning this aspect of hospital-based care. Little empirical evidence assesses the extent to which hospitals relied on hospital chaplains as care providers during these years. This study inv...

BACKGROUND While the main focus of accreditation initiatives has been on hospitals, the implementation of these programs is a relatively new notion among other types of healthcare facilities. Correspondingly, this study aims to understand how accreditation is perceived among primary public healthcare centers using an isomorphic institutional theory. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY Semi-structured, in-dept...

OBJECTIVES The objectives of this review were to identify factors that influence implementation of hospital accreditation programmes and to assess the impact of the accreditation process on quality improvement in public hospitals. DATA SOURCES Two electronic databases, Medline (OvidSP) and PubMed, were systematically searched. STUDY SELECTION "Public hospital", "hospital accreditation", and...