The Benefits of Accreditation for Healthcare Quality

Abstract

Background: Accreditation is widely regarded as a reliable method for assessing and improving the quality of medical care provided. However, the effect that it has on performance and outcomes is not yet fully understood. The purpose of this review was to locate and assess the available evidence regarding the effects of hospital accreditation. Methods: We conducted in-depth searches of a variety of electronic databases, including PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, EMBASE, MEDLINE (OvidSP), CDSR, CENTRAL, ScienceDirect, SSCI, RSCI, and SciELO, as well as other sources, using subject headings that were pertinent to our inquiry. No matter how the studies were designed or written, we included all quantitative research that had been reviewed by experts and published in the past twenty years. In accordance with the guidelines provided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses, two reviewers independently screened the initially identified articles, read the full texts of potentially relevant studies, extracted the necessary data, and evaluated the methodological quality of the studies that were included in the analysis using a validated tool. The results of the accreditation effects were analyzed, and six distinct impact themes were identified and categorized as a result. Results: After reviewing a total of 17,830 studies, we decided to include only 76 of the empirical studies that investigated the effects of accreditation because they satisfied our criteria. Different research approaches were taken in each of these studies. Our findings indicate that hospital accreditation has a consistent and positive effect on safety culture, process-related performance measures, efficiency, and the length of stay for patients. On the other hand, employee satisfaction, patient satisfaction and experience, and the 30-day hospital readmission rate were found to be unrelated to accreditation. Because of the contradictory findings regarding the impact of accreditation on the mortality rate and infections associated with healthcare, it was difficult to reach definitive conclusions regarding these outcome measures. Conclusion: Compliance with accreditation standards is posited to have multiple plausible benefits, one of which is an improvement in a hospital's overall performance, and there is some evidence to support the notion that this proposition. The introduction of hospital accreditation schemes encourages performance improvement and patient safety, despite the lack of evidence supporting a definitive link between the two. It is recommended that efforts be made to modernize accreditation and provide incentives for getting it in order to move toward institutionalization and maintain performance gains.