Patient safety is always a global challenge. With the increasingly complex clinical services in hospitals, implementation of comprehensive quality management system, incorporating thorough planning of all clinical and management processes, is crucial. One of the effective catalysts is hospital accreditation by an external evaluation organization.
Early research into accreditation had documented the benefits as supporting change management, multidisciplinary teams and professional development with positive clinical outcomes. Recent studies have affirmed that accreditation programs are recognized globally as an important external driver to improve organizational culture, organizational and clinical processes, leading to better clinical performance, safety and quality outcomes. Furthermore, participation in an accreditation program results in compliance to external standards and continual process improvements.
With changing societal demands, rapid advances in technology and evolution in services, the scope in hospital accreditation expands. The newly released criteria for certification of hospital accreditation standard by the International Society for Quality in Health Care – External Evaluation Association (ISQua-EEA, 6th Edition) has introduced additional clauses on environmental sustainability, staff safety/benefits, patient data safety and monitoring of artificial intelligence. All these reflect the importance of enhancing patient safety midst all the dynamic changes.
The Shenzhen Hospital Accreditation Research Center (SHARC) was established with the mission of developing the National '3A' Hospital Accreditation System into an internationally recognized system. We have successfully attained ISQua-EEA accreditation for our China's International Hospital Accreditation Standard (CIHA) in 2022, Surveyors Training Program and External Evaluation Organization in 2024. Aiming for continual improvement of the accreditation processes, we are now conducting an in-depth review of CIHA to explore for further optimization through incorporation of these new parameters and adaptation to accomodate different laws/regulations and service demands.
The future trends and potential opportunities for hospital accreditation will be presented.
