International Accreditation Standards Research Articles

Can European external peer review techniques be introduced and adopted into Taiwan's hospital accreditation system?

Health service accreditation systems have had extraordinarily of China, began its hospital accreditation system in 1978 operated jointly by the Ministry of Education and the Derapid growth and development worldwide in the past decade [1–17]. Currently 28 countries have established their own partment of Health (DOH) [25–27]. In 1986, with the promulgation of the Medical Care Act (MCA), Taiwan’s hospital hospital accreditation systems. The international accreditation feasibility paper of the International Society for Quality in accreditation programme was divided into two main schemes: teaching hospital accreditation and hospital accreditation. Health Care (ISQua) indicated the importance of these systems and the interest of international societies in elaborating The former programme was conducted by the Ministry of Education and the DOH; the latter was operated separately and developing a set of international accreditation standards for health care [8,13,18]. by the DOH [1]. Accredited hospitals in Taiwan were classified into four However, issues, policies, controversies, and challenges regarding international accreditation standards have been categories: medical centre hospitals, regional hospitals, district teaching hospitals and district non-teaching hospitals [25,26]. discussed and debated for many years [1,5,14,18–23]. After the ISQua meeting in Venice, Italy in 1994, the Society On 16 March 1999, the DOH, the Hospital Association, the Private Hospitals & Clinics Association, and the Physicians organized its own accreditation section and agenda, and in 1998 the Agenda for Leadership in Programs for Healthcare Union funded the Taiwan Joint Commission on Hospital Accreditation and Quality Assurance (TJCHA, the foundaAccreditation was formalized in Budapest, Hungary [8]. Recently, the international health care community has tried to tion). The Commission took over the accreditation programme for district hospitals and in 1999 was appointed by develop new methods and techniques to review and learn from different health services accreditation external peer the DOH as the sole or primary accreditation body for these hospitals. However, the DOH still conducted the accreditation review systems such as the European External Peer Review Techniques (ExPeRT) Project and the Joint Commission programme for medical centre hospitals and regional hospitals. In 1998, there were 719 hospitals in Taiwan. Of this International Accreditation task force project. In the Asia-Pacific region, the Australian Council on total, 567 hospitals were accredited including 14 medical centre hospitals, 45 regional hospitals and 508 district and Hospital Standards was the first to launch a hospital accreditation programme in 1974 [6,24]. In the past two decades, speciality hospitals. hospital accreditation programmes or systems have been established in several countries or areas such as: Taiwan (1978), Korea (1981), Mainland China (1989), New Zealand Governance and policies (1990), Japan (1995), The Philippines (1999), Malaysia (1999) [16,25,26]. Many additional countries or areas have shown According to the MCA, the DOH was allowed to assign great interest in the development of a hospital accreditation responsibility to some medical societies and hospital assystem, for example Hong Kong, Indonesia and Singapore. sociations for some parts of the accreditation programme such as accreditation of intensive care units and psychiatric services. Although some parts of the accreditation programme were handed over to the TJCHA, the DOH still plays a role Hospital accreditation in Taiwan as an accreditation body in areas such as formulation of accreditation policies, developing standards, and appointing For the purpose of assigning teaching hospitals as the setting for medical students’ teaching practice Taiwan, the Republic accreditation surveyors for on-site visits.