Hospital accreditation method: A comparative study

Hospital accreditation is “an external evaluation of a hospital’s structures, processes, outputs and outcomes by an independent professional accreditation body using pre-established optimum standards”. Accreditation is a strategy for ensuring the quality, safety, effectiveness and efficiency of hospital services. The efficacy of an accreditation program depends on the validity of the accreditation governance, methods, standards, and the surveyors. Iranchr('39')s hospital accreditation system faces some challenges. Benchmarking leading international accreditation bodies’ methods benefit the Iranian hospital accreditation system. Hence, this study aimed to compare the Iranian hospital accreditation methods with the world leading international hospital accreditation bodies’ methods.

A comparative research was used in this study in 2019. The Iranian hospital accreditation methods was compared with those of the Joint commission international, the Accreditation Canada international and the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards International. Framework analysis was used for the qualitative data analysis in this study.

While the Iranian hospital accreditation program is governmental and compulsory, the three leading international accreditation programs are private, not for profit, and voluntary. While Iran’s hospital accreditation method includes the self-assessment and the on-site survey, the other countries use self-assessment, on-site survey, un-noticed survey, periodic review, examining key performance indicators and measuring patient satisfaction. The international accreditation award levels include “Fully accredited”, Provisionally accredited” and “Not accredited” and the accreditation certification is valid for 3-4 years. The Iran’s accreditation certificate is valid for 2 years and consisted of 7 levels from “Excellent” to “Not accredited”.

Complementary evaluation methods should be used to strengthen the validity and reliability of Iran’s hospital accreditation program. Furthermore, the time period of the accreditation certificate validity should be increased and the awards levels should be decreased.