ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE BEST GLOBAL HEALTHCARE ACCREDITATIONS
As good Samaritans and deserving patients, it is our responsibility to understand and support accredited healthcare facilities so that the quality of global healthcare can further progress for the generations to come.
Find out more below on why healthcare accreditation is so important and what different international healthcare accreditations do.
What is Healthcare Accreditation?
Hospital and healthcare accreditation is defined as "an objective self or external peer-reviewed assessment process used by healthcare organizations to establish their level of performance in comparison to trusted standards and to allow for continuous improvement."
Without healthcare accreditation, there is no way to know if a hospital, clinic or other healthcare facility (including any physicians general practice) meets with either local or international healthcare standards. Some accreditation systems are set in place to monitor specific aspects of health, safety, performance, hygiene, etc., or even just to monitor specific areas of medicine such as the psychiatric services offered in a hospital.
While they should assess all areas of healthcare quality, patient care and how the patient is treated at every step of the clinical experience should be the main focus in healthcare accreditation and schemes to ensure an adequate standard is being met. Moreover, the best healthcare accreditation evaluations use the latest evidence-based techniques to standardize healthcare quality.
Healthcare accreditation is not usually implemented by government healthcare systems; however, in many countries regarded as having some of the best healthcare, national healthcare standards have been maintained through external healthcare accreditation boards.
As a side note, the effectiveness of healthcare accreditation compared to other methods of improving healthcare has been poorly tested to date; yet it is generally accepted as the best way to objectively compare hospitals and healthcare providers against one another, as well as to measure outcomes of success, quality and standardization.
International Vs National Healthcare Accreditation
Over the last few decades since 1980, healthcare accreditation services have cropped up all over the globe in just about every country to help improve the quality of healthcare. These healthcare accreditations are national.
With the expansion of medical tourism and the ever-increasing amounts of citizens traveling to get their medical needs tended to, a few national healthcare accreditations have expanded their reach globally so that these individuals can easily identify whether they will be receiving a standard of healthcare they are accustomed to or not. This has placed an accelerated momentum on building an international standard of healthcare, pushing all countries around the globe to offer better services and patient care.
These days, international healthcare accreditation has escalated to the point where we have international healthcare organizations that manage groups of healthcare accreditation organizations to ensure the best possible standard of healthcare is maintained, particularly in the private healthcare sector.
First world countries such as the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada have dominated the scene with stringent national healthcare accreditation boards that fill specialized purposes and niches, both nationally and internationally.
Generally speaking, international healthcare accreditation is the best available in the world as it models itself off of the latest advances in global healthcare, stemming from some of the top medical powers of the world. National healthcare accreditation can be just as good, however, in developing nations national healthcare accreditation usually does not compare to international standards.
4 Quick Benefits of Using Internationally Accredited Healthcare Facilities
International healthcare accreditation schemes maintain some of the best standards of healthcare in the world. As a result, the patient wins nearly every time!
Here are some of the benefits you can expect for using internationally accredited healthcare institutions:
1. Increased Chances of Satisfaction
Patients who choose internationally accredited healthcare providers stand a higher chance of leaving with full satisfaction.
This is largely related to the emphasis on bettering quality patient care that many international healthcare accreditation boards reinforce - another reason why the private healthcare sector is preferable when visiting a foreign country for medical tourism purposes.
Internationally accredited healthcare facilities are also more likely to accommodate the foreign patient with frequent difficulties, such as language and culture shock.
2. Better Equipment, Facilities & Physicians
Since international accreditation has been spring-boarding off the best clinical practices on a global scale, top accredited facilities are generally up to date with the latest equipment, facilities, medical practices and cutting-edge medical technology.
Physicians in these facilities are more likely to have trained in globally renowned institutions with similar healthcare standards and the best medical training possible.
On a national level, some data confirms that healthcare accreditation standards implemented at academic hospitals improves the quality and patient care of doctors in training.
3. Quicker & Safer Service Delivery
As mentioned above, the quality of physicians will likely be the best the world has to offer and therefore there will be quicker and safer service delivery. The strictest international healthcare accreditation standards have ensured that emergency services that demand speed are carried out efficiently and safely, constantly striving to improve all treatment delivery and quality.
4. Contributing to a Better Global Society
The best part about opting for an internationally accredited hospital or clinic is that you are personally contributing to bettering the standard of healthcare for the whole world!
International accreditation organizations and academic institutions work hand-in-hand to continuously assess and refine healthcare standards, based off data from accredited healthcare providers. By participating and supporting these accredited healthcare facilities, you are contributing to making the process run more smooth for everyone else too.
Top International Healthcare Accreditation Organizations & Decoding What Their Credits Mean
MYA Care makes it very easy to find internationally accredited healthcare providers and healthcare physicians from all over the globe.
Since all accreditation organizations have their own way of assessing and maintaining healthcare standards, we have gone ahead and discussed what it means for a healthcare provider or service to have healthcare accreditation from four of the top international organizations - all of which you may encounter on MYA Care when booking your next medical trip!
1. Joint Commission International (JCI)
The Joint Commission International is an American-based non-profit healthcare accreditation organization that has a large-scale global presence. All countries recognize JCI accredited healthcare providers as maintaining the gold standard of healthcare.
They also offer a whole suite of non-hospital training programs and guidelines for laboratories plus those involved in emergency care, home care, long-term care, primary care and more.
The JCI makes it their job to enforce that a top level of healthcare is administered and maintained, with the best patient care, efficient methodology, enhanced safety protocols and rigorous standards. JCI accredited clinics boast some of the strictest hospital standards globally, with cutting-edge clinical data to back it all up.
Many consider JCI accreditation to be the best healthcare accreditation currently available worldwide. As a result of JCI's superior accreditation, it has shaped many other accreditation programs worldwide too and set a stringent bar for world health care standards.
Statistical data reveals that JCI accreditation comes out top amongst 22 other world leading healthcare accreditation organizations, heading the others by 25-50% in many fields, including:
- Effect on quality improvement
- Effect on safety improvement
- Improving health care management integration
- Evidence of ongoing innovation
- Emphasis on efficiency and effectiveness
- Influence on global accreditation standards
- Span of coverage and scientific level
- Evidence of public confidence in process
In other words, a hospital or any other type of healthcare provider that is JCI accredited is expected to offer the best quality of health care possible.
2. The International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua)
ISQua is a non-profit organization and community of people dedicated to promoting health care quality improvement. The organization has been working to improve the standards of health care around the globe for nearly 40 years, with a headquarters in Dublin, Ireland and committee members from all over. There are also national branches of the ISQua, including the Asian Society for Quality in Health Care.
As of 2019, ISQua's external evaluation for healthcare accreditation became its own entity known as the IEEA or International Society for Quality in Health Care External Evaluation Association.
The IEEA takes pride in developing personalized programs, schemes, guidelines and education to hospitals, physicians and healthcare providers in an attempt to further improve their quality of service and health care for the patient.
Hospitals or healthcare physicians who are IEEA compliant meet the strict standards of the IEEA which are continuously updating and improving in accordance with trends in global healthcare quality. Those who are IEEA accredited are also dedicated to upholding these standards and are checked on a monthly basis for compliance.
While the IEEA are setting a good international standard for health care quality control in the private sector, it is important to note that they are not officially recognized by public authorities as an accreditation or assessment.
You can expect that any physician or hospital that is IEEA accredited will offer better than average patient care and health care quality.
3. Australian Council on Healthcare Standards International (ACHSI)
The ACHS is a leading publically-recognized healthcare accreditation body in Australia that also has an international branch, the ACHSI.
The ASCHI aims to extend the ASCH's vision internationally and aid all organizations worldwide in achieving increased levels of quality and safety in service delivery.
According to some comparable data, the ACHSI measures up to the top healthcare accreditation standards from around the globe, including the American JCAHO, the French ANAES, QHNZ from New Zealand, the Canadian CCHSA and accredited healthcare in the UK.
They base their accreditation programs off of the needs of the healthcare provider individually incorporating international healthcare standards that are recognized by healthcare authorities and governments globally.
" The principles upon which the ACHSI programs are developed reflect the characteristics displayed by an improving organisation including:
- a consumer focus in care and service provision;
- effective leadership;
- continuous improvement;
- evidence of outcomes, and
- striving for best practice
" - Taken from the ASCH website under Accreditation
If the healthcare service you are using is ACHSI compliant, then you can expect a high level of safe, expert care.
4. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
ISO is a massive internationally recognized organization that develops and publishes global standards.
While a healthcare provider or service may meet with ISO standards, ISO themselves do not offer accreditation and do not actually count as a healthcare accreditation organization (which they are often confused as being) - however, they are intimately involved in maintaining an international healthcare standard. Healthcare accreditation organizations typically use standards set by ISO when creating accreditation programs.
The following are examples of books which contain rules, regulations and standards that ISO publishes and regularly updates and maintains:
- ISO 10001 Quality Management – Customer Satisfaction – Guidelines for Codes of Conduct for Organizations
- ISO 10002 Quality Management – Customer Satisfaction – Guidelines for Complaints Handling in Organizations
- ISO 9001 & ISO 9001:2015 Quality management systems — Requirements
Final Thoughts
Medical tourism has seen huge surge over the last few decades alongside an emerging standard for global healthcare. Through using the internationally accredited healthcare providers that MYA Care has to offer, you can expect to receive an above average level of healthcare safety, quality and effectivity that is constantly working towards improvement.
To search for the best healthcare providers worldwide, please use the Mya Care search engine.
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