Accreditation: what can we learn from the Anglophone model?

doi:10.1016/0168-8510(95)00766-0

Health Policy

Volume 34, Issue 3, December 1995, Pages 193-204

https://doi.org/10.1016/0168-8510(95)00766-0 Get rights and content

Abstract

There is growing interest in the development and application of standards for the health care to both promote quality assurance but also to improve the processes by which health services are held accountable to the public. This paper maps the development of organisational accreditation systems in the USA, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. In the USA, accreditation, which began as a means of ensuring the correct environment for clinical practice has developed into a form of public regulation. In the United Kingdom, many different approaches to the setting of standards and their assessment has created a variety of accreditation systems. The case studies demonstrate that as the concept of accreditation diffuses into the health care systems of different countries, it is being adapted to meet the wider policy needs of different national circumstances.

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Accreditation: what can we learn from the Anglophone model?

Abstract

The Lancet

A History of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals

Journal of the American Medical Association

Quality Assurance in US Hospitals: a view from Australia

Australian Clinical Review

American Journal of Nursing

Total quality management and continuous quality improvement: an introduction for surgeons

Surgery

Prized by hospitals, accreditation hides perils patients face

The Wall Street Journal