Essay on Accreditation: Qualifying Individuals & Institutions for Official Recognition

Introduction

Accreditation is a process of officially recognizing and individual or an institution as having met specific standards of being qualified to undertake certain activities. After an institution or an individual is accredited, they get the necessary documentation to prove that they are in line with the code of conduct and ethics (Grundman & Pistone, 2018). This paper shall discuss various aspects of accreditation.

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The Purpose of Accreditation

In modern times, there has been an increase in the demand for proper healthcare due to various forces like insurance, corporate growth, competition, and medical tourism. As a consequence of these expectations from consumers for the best in quality in health services, national and international accreditation agencies have been established to act as quality assurance agencies (Butz & Hirsch, 2020). Accreditation aims to make sure that the customer's level of faith and confidence in hospitals remains at its maximum.

Besides, the key objective of the process is to make sure that hospitals undertake not only evidence-based practice but also give equal access to quality, efficient, affordable, effective healthcare. The process of accreditation has improved the quality of care in most health institutions. This is because this rule ensures that all medical centers operate within a specified guideline, and in case of not adhering to the set rules, one might lose their certificate of accreditation (Grundman & Pistone, 2018). As a result, this would be unfortunate for the institution, as it will lose all its potential clients.

Accreditation Process by the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC)

The Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC) is the leading accreditation institution in the United States. The AAACH follows the five-step process of accreditation:

Self-Assessment

All medical institutions wishing to be accredited by the AAAHC must familiarize themselves with their set standards. This is important for medical institutions to know if they are operating within the rules of the AAAHC, and if not, they can make necessary amendments (Butz & Hirsch, 2020).

Application

When an institution is confident that they have met all the required standards, they can purchase and fill the AAAHC Accreditation Application Package. Then they submit it to the commission.

Evaluation

At this stage, the AAAHC undertakes an off-site review of the application. If satisfied, they send their trained surveyors who understand the necessary guidelines in the accreditation process (Grundman & Pistone, 2018).

Deliberation

The final decision as to whether the service has satisfied all essential requirements is done independently, by an impartial panel of Commissioners. These commissioners represent the business, law, and healthcare.

Accreditation

Once they have passed all the tests, the institution shall be recognized for its excellence as per the AAAHC's highest standards. AAAHC gives healthcare services accreditation answers for emergency clinics, general wellbeing offices, government agencies, and other social insurance associations. The objective is to enable various associates to satisfy the strictest guidelines in the business, showing their duty to protected, great patient consideration (Grundman & Pistone, 2018). The AAAHC influence the apparatuses and experience of AAAHC to help global medicinal services associations increase current standards for wellbeing and quality consideration, with attention on lifting the patient experience. As an accomplice for nearby medicinal services associations, Acreditas Global additionally attempts to comprehend one of a kind social standards and qualities when supporting human services associations during the accreditation procedure.

Standards of Accreditation

The standards of AAAHC are quite rigorous. When the AAAHC goes to undertake the on-site review, they consider the technical competence of the institution requiring accreditation. Similarly, they ensure that the health institution has followed all the standards designed by the industry experts who take into consideration customer needs and satisfaction (Grundman & Pistone, 2018).

Public Disclosure and Its Importance

Yes, the AAAHC and other accreditation bodies disclose their survey results to the public. This step is quite essential in that it provides adequate information regarding healthcare institutions that the general public might not be aware of. It is advantageous because with such data, the customer knows which medical facility is approved and accredited, and this will help them minimise risk by not going to hospitals that have not been accredited (Grundman & Pistone, 2018). Second, public disclosure of accreditation results has assisted in reducing the mortality rates in the United States. Patients who get treated in accredited medical institutions had decreased 30-day mortality. Lastly, public disclosure is essential because if the AAAHC conducts a survey and does not inform the public, it will be contrary to the code of ethics. It is their responsibility to ensure that patients get high-quality healthcare service, within their budget constraint (Grundman & Pistone, 2018).

Conclusion

The accreditation association, AAAHC, is a private entity and does not subscribe to the U.S government. The Accreditation has indeed been beneficial to the healthcare system of the whole country in general, as it has enabled a whole lot of people to access emergency services ate ease (Butz & Hirsch, 2020). The association always discloses their research findings to the public a sure way of improving their operation and people experience.

References

Butz, S. F., & Hirsch, I. A. (2020). Accreditation for the Ambulatory Surgery Center. In Manual of Practice Management for Ambulatory Surgery Centers (pp. 53-61). Springer, Cham.

Grundman, R., & Pistone, C. (2018, May). Achieving accreditation with AAAHC. In gastroenterology nursing (Vol. 41, No. 3, pp. 271-271). Two Commerce SQ, 2001 Market St, Philadelphia, PA 19103 USA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.