Introduction
Patients’ safety and well-being are some of the most crucial components in any healthcare system. Accreditation is a practice aimed to assess this component of in-hospital care as well as the overall quality of provided care against established standards. Certification of accreditation guarantees patients and stakeholders that a healthcare organization has reached at least a minimum level of quality (Andres, Song, Schooling, & Johnston, 2019). The ultimate objective of the process is supposed to be the improvement in patient care and patient outcomes, but the evidence that corroborates the idea that accreditation positively influences them is limited (Andres et al., 2019). Still, the process remains significant to organizations, patients, and communities and for quality improvement generally.
Accreditation: Types, Requirements, Significance
Accreditation helps to secure that an organization complies with the standards determined by an external organization. The process is complex and has several levels and types. Accordingly to the recognition level, a healthcare organization can be certified internationally or on the national level – those are its two main varieties. Even though the process does not appear to be obligatory, hospitals need to receive accreditation to qualify for governmentally funded programs, such as Medicaid and Medicare. Hence, certifying a healthcare organization is beneficial in several ways. Furthermore, it is proposed (Grepperud, 2015) that hospital accreditation results in “increased accountability, improved staff motivation, greater consistency, less waste, financial impacts, public disclosure, professional development, and patient satisfaction” (p. 58). Another significant benefit is cost reduction, which is obtained by optimizing processes and the use of resources in compliance with the set norms (Grepperud, 2015). Generally, accreditation’s primary purpose is to confirm that the provided care is of high quality and fortify an organization.
Besides impacting healthcare facilities, accreditation also influences individual patients and communities. Primarily, it signals patients that a hospital can be trusted since it demonstrates that the facility can provide quality healthcare services. The process is supposed to enhance reliability, patient safety, and their experience. For instance, research on the subject (Brubakk, Vist, Bukholm, Barach, & Tjomsland, 2015) shows that “in general, performance in accredited hospitals was higher than in non-accredited hospitals and showing higher compliance to standards also affecting outcome positively” (p. 7). Regarding the community, accreditation can also be advantageous. Since it is stated that the process helps organizations minimize their waste and use resources more efficiently, resulting in cost reduction, more means become accessible and can be employed for further developments (Grepperud, 2015). Output quality enhancement that accreditation entails is also significant to society (Grepperud, 2015). In this way, accreditation helps patients feel safer and reassured in a medical setting and increases communal well-being by optimizing processes.
Accreditation standards are designed to estimate clinical practice and organizational efficiency adequately. The requirements address such domains as organization and service delivery, improvement in quality, acceptability, patient participation, appropriateness, effectiveness, et cetera (Tabrizi & Gharibi, 2019). If an organization meets the requirements, it needs to maintain accreditation. To do so, staff training should be employed, especially when new employees are hired. In addition to training, financial resources for internal control and self-assessment could also be needed (Tabrizi & Gharibi, 2019). The accreditation process is supposed to be objective, comprehensive, and consistent. It can be divided into initial accreditation and reaccreditation. Initial accreditation presupposes that a facility was not certified before. Since initial accreditation lasts up to several years, a healthcare organization may require reaccreditation, which is the reestablishment of the certification. The process is required to guarantee continuous quality improvement and that a facility regularly performs by the norms.
Licensure: Types, Requirements, Significance
Licensure is a necessary process in healthcare by which permission to engage in occupational practice is given to healthcare organizations or medical professionals. Federal authority is commonly responsible for effectuating the procedure. Several types of licenses issued to different medical professionals exist, varying from medical doctors to physician assistants. Obtaining a license is obligatory for healthcare organizations, as it serves to protect the fundamentals of patient safety and the public healthcare system (Shalowitz, 2019). The main objective or licensure is securing that an organization or a practitioner satisfies the minimum standards needed to provide quality healthcare services. Similar to accreditation, this process can serve to shield patients from malpractice (Shalowitz, 2019). For a hospital, losing a license involves a high risk of being closed since, without it, any healthcare facility is not legally allowed to provide care. In addition, reimbursements from Medicare or Medicaid would be revoked.
Conclusively, accreditation and licensure are essential processes that potentially render healthcare provision more systematized and standardized. Despite not being mandatory, accreditation becomes increasingly widespread in healthcare and signals to patients that services offered in a facility meet governmentally recognized standards. This process is seemingly beneficial for societies on multiple levels. Correspondingly, licensure is essential for ensuring that high-quality care is provided. Moreover, the process is obligatory, and without undergoing it, a healthcare institution endangers its capacity to operate. Hence, accreditation and licensure are needed to ensure patients’ safety and continuous improvement of quality before all else.
References
Andres, E. B., Song, W., Schooling, C. M., & Johnston, J. M. (2019). The influence of hospital accreditation: a longitudinal assessment of organisational culture. BMC Health Services Research, 19(1), 1-8.
Brubakk, K., Vist, G. E., Bukholm, G., Barach, P., & Tjomsland, O. (2015). A systematic review of hospital accreditation: the challenges of measuring complex intervention effects. BMC Health Services Research, 15(1), 1–10.
Grepperud, S. (2015). Is the hospital decision to seek accreditation an effective one? The International Journal of Health Planning and Management, 30(1), 56–68.
Shalowitz, J. I. (2019). The U.S. healthcare system: Origins, organization and opportunities. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Tabrizi, J. S., & Gharibi, F. (2019). Primary healthcare accreditation standards: A systematic review. International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, 1–12.