Healthcare organization accreditation is adopted in different settings, mostly used as a mechanism for the improvement of service or as a means for health reform. Though there is little evidence of the impact of accreditation on facilities, developing countries that initially have low standards of adherence improve their levels of compliance significantly which is as a result of participating in accreditation programs. Accredited organizations acquire characteristics such as development and sustainability. Through sharing of knowledge and experience, accredited organizations are able to deliver quality healthcare services. Here are some of the accredited programs.
HealthCare Organization Accreditation
Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC)
One of the available programs is the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health that was founded in 1979. It accredits organizations involved in ambulatory health care including endoscopy centers and office-based surgery centers. AAAHC is granted to certify ambulatory surgery centers for Medicare by the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare services. It offers accreditation surveys conducted by professionals who have firsthand understanding of issues facing the organizations they survey.
Benefits and Costs of AAAHC
This center may allow the facility receive Medicare or third-party reimbursement for patients. Accreditation allows the organization to charge facility fee and physician’s fee. That is a benefit to the organization since it provides it with more compensation to cover the costs. When it comes to cost, some organizations may not afford to pay the fee that allows them to improve their facility in order to meet the AAAHC’s standard of care. This becomes a big barrier on other facilities.
Center for Improvement in Health Care Quality (CIHQ)
The second program is the Center for Improvement in Health Care Quality is a membership-based organization. It comprises of critical access and acute care hospitals. They help to improve the ability of the members to meet the challenges of the regulatory environment. Their aim is to create a regulatory environment that will enable organizations to deliver quality and safe patient care. Members are educated on standards and the process of survey in order to encourage individuals to grow professionally.
Benefits and Costs CIHQ
The benefits include access to survey procedures and standards and also monthly audio conferences which regard survey procedures. There are documentation tools such as, staff training aids, forms and template policies which assist in compliance efforts. Its costs include full surveys which are paid in three installments which is based on the schedule of the annual fee. This includes travel expenses that are incurred by the surveyor.
Community Health Accreditation Program (CHAP)
The third program is the Community Health Accreditation Program is a nonprofit independent accrediting body. It mainly deals with community-based healthcare organizations. It was founded in 1965 and it was the first to identify the need for accrediting community-based care. It has authority to survey agencies that provide health care in order to determine if they meet CMS quality standards. It granted authority for home care by the centers of Medicaid and Medicare services.
Benefits and Costs
The benefits include the strengthening of internal operations of the organization. Community Health Accreditation Program (CHAP) also aims at promoting continuous quality improvement systems and techniques. It promotes safety for the consumer and also provides satisfactory outcomes. It also aims at affirming public trust. On the side of cost, it is able to meet community health needs in a manner that is efficient and also cost-effective.
Quality Improvement Program Ranked with Rationale
It is expected that each organization has a documented process that follows and identifies the best practices. Surveyors review policies and observe procedures in order to ensure that there is compliance. This can be done by performing a risk assessment to identify if an institution has a deficiency of SIP. An annual training plan is created based on accreditation standards. It includes education in areas that involve labeling, disinfecting, administering, and how to discard medication vials, needles, and syringes.
Staff competencies should also be assessed. An organization can shine through its surveys which show how they perform their daily activities. The staff of an organization should be well educated about quality improvements and standards. The organization should focus on how processes can be improved as a means of reducing cost and redundancy. Accreditation Association for ambulatory health care has proved to be the better-accredited program due to Quality Improvement, Information Giving, and Regulation.
Joint Commission accreditation is the objective evaluation process that can help health care organizations measure
Quality Improvement
It has enabled the entry into the development of elements of a framework of continuous quality improvement. This framework enables the whole team to improve the quality of services. Its main agenda is to increase efficiency and for the safety of patients.
Information Giving
It offers a credible measure of quality and safety of practices. This care can be used by stakeholders to support comparisons between each practice, highlight opportunities for improvement, levels of adherence to standards, and enhance confidence and decision making. Due to the availability of information, it may change individual’s behaviors.
Regulation
It aids quality control and enforces measures in ways that are able to benefit operations and practices. Regulatory functions of practice accreditation may be above quality control. In the US, the joint commission on the accreditation of healthcare organization (JCAHO) emphasizes maximum achievable standards. JCAHO is a quasi-public regulatory body despite its policy whose performance improvement fulfills state licensing requirements.
Conclusion
Many healthcare organizations fail to thrive while some of them continue to grow. In order for organizations to be successful, they have to complement regulation mechanisms, the government’s commitment to quality health care and health care funding. It is paramount that organization accreditation is carried out to ensure that healthcare facilities meet the minimum standards required. There are several accreditation programs and these programs come with various benefits and advantages that are aimed at improving quality of service at the organization.
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References
Griffith, J. R. (2017). Is It Time to Abandon Hospital Accreditation?. American Journal of Medical Quality, 1062860617707578.
O’Beirne, M., Zwicker, K., Sterling, P. D., Lait, J., Robertson, H. L., & Oelke, N. D. (2013). The status of accreditation in primary care. Quality in primary care, 21(1).
Shaw, C. D., Braithwaite, J., Moldovan, M., Nicklin, W., Grgic, I., Fortune, T., & Whittaker, S. (2013). Profiling health-care accreditation organizations: an international survey. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 25(3), 222-231.
Urman, R. D., & Philip, B. K. (2014). Accreditation of ambulatory facilities. Anesthesiology clinics, 32(2), 551-557.
