Monday, March 5, 2012

Accrediting Hospitals in Europe

Ever questioned what accreditation is? And how important is it for you to find an accredited hospital if you are seeking hospital care abroad??? Is it same as certification? The rationale may be, similar but the level of detail in accredited systems is much higher.
Most people may have heard mostly about accredited laboratories, but accredited hospitals are totally different and hold a great competitive advantage if they seek for international patients. Of course it is a very expensive and long time effort, but in the same time, it is the most certain way to let foreign patients built trust on a hospital.


OK, let's leave patients and go to the other side. How to accredit a hospital?
Europe had two accreditation bodies. The first is in the United Kingdom with the "Trent Accreditation Scheme(now replaced by a number of independent accreditation schemes, such as the QHA Trent Accreditation) and the other is in France, known as "HAS (Haute Autorité de Santé)". The most common accreditation scheme and body is settled in the USA. Of course it is the Joint Commission International. Australia has "ACHSI", Canada has "Accreditation Canada" and New Zealand has Quality Health New Zealand (QHNZ). QHNZ quality standards where developed acording to the quality standards used by Australia and Canada.
Finally, India has National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers. 
Can the accreditation bodies be accredited? Sure they can. And who does this? An umbrella organisation,  ISQua (International Society for Quality in Healthcare) is the answer. The responsibility of this organisation is to accredit JCI accreditation scheme, QHNZ, Canadian Council on Health Services Accreditation, and the accreditation providers in United Kingdom and Australia.
Which scheme should I choose? Well, in my opinion this decision is 50% marketing and 50% organisational needs. If the Hospital is in Europe, and the the target group of patients is Europeans, you could try a European scheme. But if you seek for overseas patients maybe JCI accreditation scheme would probably work better.
So, a non-accedited hospital can't have international patients? Of course it can. Accreditation is only a big step to establish a position in the map of cross border healthcare. Another essential element is the reputation of your hospital and maybe of your country's NHS reputation. This is because potential "customers"-patients may build some kind of stereotypes about a country or a NHS. I don't get surprised to hear people saying "Ah, UK has the best hospitals" or "In France and Germany you can find the best doctors" or a country level comment " Finland and Sweden offer a very high level of services (generally) so I would not be afraid to visit a hospital there for my treatment". These people talk about these countries having no evidence, however their good reputation tends to help them gain trust and feel more secure there. Although this is only a perception, perception is extremely important in marketing.
In my opinion, a hospital with cross border prospects settled in Europe, should better be established in a reputable country, it should be accredited and (in my opinion again) it should offer competitive services, and not competitive prices. European hospital cost will never reach the hospital costs in Asia. So price competition will fail. Cross border care in Europe has a great potential if market researchers define which characteristics make the European hospitals be perceived as more secure and of higher quality. 

2 comments:

  1. Hi

    Trent folded 3 years ago.

    I have been looking for 5 years but have yet to find a single piece of evidence that Europeans , whether at home or as medical travellers, care in the slightest about accreditation.They assume it is up to the govt to check that a hospital or clinic is fit for purpose

    Many schemes cost a lot but give no guarantee of healthcare quality-or even fire safety (NABH )

    Accreditation has become an industry that believes its own sales pitch- and while some are better than others as they use people with active experience to judge quality-it is a red herring.

    Airplanes and airlines are tested regularly , cars are crash tested, so consumers assume a minimum level of safety.

    The jumble of competing schemes is a mess- and they do help hospitals be more logical

    It is only the Americans who have this fixation with JCI - and when you investigate it -it is only the agencies and others who have all convinced each other that JCI is goodas it is American, but all the est are not-as they are not American' and the customer - cares not a jot

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    1. Thank you for your info about Trent I will correct it. I agree with you 100% in what you mentioned before. I think accreditation can just boost the reputation of a Hospital and get it in the lists of medical tourism agencies. Lots of money, and the expected value differs in each case. However this doesn't mean thet an accredited hospital offers better services than a non accredited (but I would personally expect and demand more in an accredited one)

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