The certification of a hospital is a voluntary and formal procedure that consists of an independent and external agent evaluating the acceptable compliance with healthcare sector standards, promoting the quality of medical practice, and pushing for continuous improvement.
The goal of achieving a certification in the hospital requires a clear understanding by the executive team. It's crucial to understand that a high-caliber healthcare organization is not simply a set of physical facilities but an entity composed of interrelated people, services, areas, and clinical and administrative processes. All these elements must operate cohesively under quality standards based on recognized international criteria.
Although there are several certifications and regulations, most of them consider these aspects:
- Patient safety. This is the most critical aspect of any hospital assessment. Ensuring patient safety and wellbeing is a priority and fundamental in all healthcare organizations.
- Humanization of care. Placing the patient at the center of medical care is essential. This involves putting their wellbeing first within the clinical care system and ensuring a personalized and compassionate approach in all aspects.
- Technology management. Implementing systems and technologies that effectively monitor hospital performance indicators is vital, resulting in perfect management and informed decision-making.
- Social and environmental responsibility. Due to the significant impact on society and the environment, sustainable hospital operations are awarded. Also, transparency of accountability and social responsibility promotion help stakeholders understand the organization's positive impact on the community and drive continuous improvement focused on the common wellbeing.
A fundamental piece to achieve this recognition is the collaboration of all personnel involved since the contribution of each element implies detailed knowledge of the tasks and represents the key to updating processes and protocols. The active participation is necessary to ensure success.
Each country establishes regulatory centers and healthcare authorities responsible for organizing and supervising the operation of healthcare providers, including hospitals. Within the scope of private hospitals, a wide variety of accreditations are available, highlighting the internationally recognized Joint Commission International, which we talked about in this article.
These are the fundamental requirements that the hospital must comply with to begin the certification process:
- The hospital must have been in operation for at least one year, ensuring that all activities, equipment, and staff are appropriately trained and geared toward patient safety.
- The organization must have the healthcare and operations licenses in rule and an executive person or team in charge. These documents must be documented and endorsed by the corresponding regulatory entity.
- The hospital must not have open administrative procedures before the healthcare regulatory authorities, demonstrating its regulatory and legal compliance.
- Hospitals classified as more complex must have undergone an inter-institutional security evaluation, guaranteeing adequate security measures in emergencies.
Critical Path: a step-by-step guide to achieving a certification.
Preparation towards external recognition allows a hospital to stand out for its qualities and competitiveness in the market, increasing its reputation and ensuring its ability to provide quality services. Likewise, it reinforces the implementation of internal evaluation systems based on indicators, resulting in continuous improvement in hospital processes and services, optimizing time and resources, and generating measurable and effective quality controls.
When following a guide for the hospital certification process, it is essential to consider a series of key steps, which could be called a Critical Path:
- The decision to go for accreditation. The boarding team realizes the need to differentiate the hospital from the competition and undergo a certification process to guarantee the quality of medical care.
- Application before the accreditation entity. This involves submitting the accreditation application, detailing the characteristics of the hospital, such as the level of services provided, the population served, and the capacity per service, among other relevant aspects. It is suggested to seek consulting professionals at this process stage.
- Self-assessment. Each hospital area must carry out a self-assessment to understand its current situation and establish goals and indicators for improvement. This activity involves the organization of documents and manuals.
- Internal work. It is important to define, follow, and communicate internally the standards and processes that will guarantee quality in all areas of the hospital.
- Presentation of the report. Once the self-assessment is completed and internal standards have been established, a detailed report must be submitted to the accrediting entity, explaining the hospital's current situation and the certification objectives.
- Evaluation visit. The regulatory authority will conduct inspection visits to verify compliance with standards. Experts in each service area of the hospital will perform these visits.
- Results report. After the visit, the evaluating entity will report the observations obtained.
- Accreditation meeting. Finally, a conference will be held with the executive committee responsible for the project to review the results and plan the next steps. This procedure must be carried out transparently and without interrupting the regular operation of the hospital.
In general, these are the steps for most hospital certification processes. However, each process is different since the scope, approaches, evaluation versions, and local regulations will vary.
