Week 5 DQ 2 Accreditation

Accreditation is a formal process wherein a health care

organization is deemed credible by an external organization.

Standards of practice are used to assess the credibility.

According to Sollecito & Johnson (2013), health care

professionals, “have been known to be skeptical about the

purpose, value, and benefits [of accreditation]”. After

completing the week’s reading, answer the following questions:

A. In your opinion, why are some health care professionals

skeptical about the accreditation process? Explain your answer.

b. What role, if any, does professional certification play in the

accreditation of an organization?

c. How could you describe the role that accreditation plays in

continuous quality improvement to increase buy-in for the

process from members of the health care team?

I think that professionals in healthcare sector do not really like the

accreditation process simply because it is human nature not be judged by

others looking at them. Sollecito, W.A. & Johnson, J. K. page 515 states

that individual healthcare professionals as well as the organizations are

connected together and their behaviour is evaluated by independent

authorities through different processes like the accreditation or indicators

like quality and standards. It is something like staying behind their title

they own.

I find it tricky to explain the role of professional certification in the process

of accreditation. I am saying this because I have seen that there are some

positions that do not need any certification of accreditation. So an

organization may be accredited but not all the staff. It is something like

the shampoo girl at a licensed salon. The girl may not be licensed though.

There are cases of people having graduation degrees but the institution

may not be accredited. There are different situations. For examples, we

may see some schools making the course shorter by 30%. It is a question

how these schools are taken at a similar level with other ones.

I think that accreditation can play a very important role in boosting buy-in

to improve quality process in debatable cases of quality improvement of

healthcare teams. We may notice that most institutes with accreditation

are really prosperous in financial terms. It is natural that secured and

happy employees would work better than others. Moreover, when the

healthcare organization can spend more money, it can get new

technology and equipments. The accreditation rally motivates the

organization to run smoothly.

I do not think that shortening medical school course by 30 percent is no

good idea as I think that helpful accreditation can be achieved through

hard labor. I do not think someone lazy in the work or study can do much

even there is training. The doctors who have worked hard to learn will

always do better. I think that it is very important issue that some school

are giving less training and so the people coming out of those schools are

not having enough training for accreditation. This is not fair in any way. It

is difficult to make judgements by making score for these schools and

others. According to Emanuel, E., & Fuchs, V., though medical schools

added years through slow increase, some are lessening the training time

in many different ways. So it means to them that the additional years are

no use for quality increase or knowledge gathering. We are living in a time

when medical services are targeted to have less cost and so we need to

be serious and critical in lessening medical training time by 30 percent.

Only the waste form the training has to be eliminated.

Emanuel, E., & Fuchs, V. (2012). Shortening Medical Training by

30%. JAMA, 307(11), 1143. Retrieved from Research Library.

Sollecito, W.A. & Johnson, J. K. (2013). Continuous quality improvement

in health care (4th ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.

Response 2

Any business has to go with the accreditation program to ensure its

quality. We can take the example of the food industry in the U.S. We see

that the food industry has to meet the quality standards set by USDA. I

can remember the issue about some toys that came from China as those

toys had toxic elements and paint with heavy metal lead. To ensure safety

and quality the accreditation programs are here to guide the healthcare

facilities so that the industry keeps to the appropriate track. Regulations

and standards are set by the accreditation authorities.

Some professionals in the healthcare field do not feel much secured with

the accreditation process. They think it can take up much time. Those

professionals who are not much familiar with the accreditation process

may feel confused. Sollecito & Johnson, 2013 comment that some might

think that there is politics behind it. I think that the accreditation process

is very important as we can see positive impact on quality. However, the

healthcare professionals should have a say in the way accreditation

process goes on. So the RNs and remaining experts should come up with

expertise and suggestions for their organizations.

Alkhenizan & Shaw, 2011 state that research has found that accredited

hospitals are expected to follow the regulations in an appropriate manner

whereas non-accredited hospitals do the less. The regulations guide the

physicians and professionals in providing care and staying concentrated

on the quality. The study comes up with evidences that show that

accreditation programs have put positive impact on different clinics to

produce quality outcome.

Any organization can get help through professional certification in the

obtaining of accreditation. It is really a complex issue. The Joint

Commission, 2011 report mentions that TJC has come up with a new

certification titled as JCCAP along with its earlier certifications. The new

program is for administrators, nurses and doctors so that the professionals

becomes accredited Joint Commission Certified Accreditation

Professionals.

References

Alkhenizan, A., & Shaw, C. (2011). Impact of accreditation on the quality

of healthcare services: A systematic review of the literature. Annals

of Saudi Medicine, 407-416. Retrieved from ProQuest.

Sollecito, W., & Johnson, J. K. (2013). Continuous quality improvement in

health care (4th ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.

The Joint Commission. (2011). The Joint Commission Resources. Retrieved

from The Joint Commission: http://www.jcrinc.com/JCCAP/