OBJECTIVES To assess the costs of hospital accreditation in Australia. DESIGN Mixed methods design incorporating: stakeholder analysis; survey design and implementation; activity-based costs analysis; and expert panel review. SETTING Acute care hospitals accredited by the Australian Council for Health Care Standards. PARTICIPANTS Six acute public hospitals across four States. RESULTS Ac...

The October and November 2004 HHN Accreditation Strategies columns addressed the new Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (Joint Commission) home care and hospice survey process describing in detail components of each survey activity. This column builds on the foundation laid in the two columns and focuses on survey process nuances for complex organizations, specificall...

Patients expect to receive safe, predictable and high-quality care delivered by competent professionals. Thus, it has become important to provide specific training in existing and new modalities and prove on-going clinical expertise. Hospital credentialing is the process by which the competence of a doctor is determined by the hospital management. In Australia, radiologists participate in a man...

Quality improvement is needed to meet the demands for quality while simultaneously reducing the cost of delivered health care. In a competitive market of corporate hospitals, quality improvement would lower the proportion of unit cost relative to potential revenue thereby increasing profit. For public hospitals, the mandate for 'minimum quality', which is the basis for accreditation, could also...

The Ottawa Hospital has developed a simple template incorporating specific key Canadian Council on Health Services Accreditation criteria that will allow clinical teams to annually self-assess their activities against the accreditation standards.

1. Distinguish between the voluntary accreditation agencies in terms of their scope of hospital and managed care accreditation services. 2. Assess the impact of accreditation changes and key initiatives (in the late 1980s and early 1990s) on the evolution of continuous quality improvement and outcomes management. 3. Assess how the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (J...

BACKGROUND In developing countries, accreditation is increasingly being used as a tool for government regulation to guarantee quality of care. Although Lebanon is the first country in the East Mediterranean Region to develop and implement accreditation standards, little is known yet on its impact on quality of care. OBJECTIVE To assess the perceived impact of accreditation on quality of care ...