Accreditation and quality improvement

The draft National Primary Health Care Strategy, <www.yourhealth.gov.au/internet/yourhealth/publishing.nsf/Content/nphc-draftreportsupp-toc>, discusses accreditation for individual professionals, practices and organisations.

• Accreditation is often used as the key indicator of safety and quality in health care.
• Accreditation for most primary health care services is voluntary and coverage varies across professional groups.
• The range of external organisations that provide accreditation for primary health care organisations and services use different standards. This is a particular issue for primary health care reform where care is increasingly focussed on delivery through multi-disciplinary teams involving individual health professionals working effectively together.
• The evidence base to support accreditation and standards as quality assurance mechanisms for primary health care is limited.¹ The results of research studies are mixed in regard to the financial impact of accreditation, the relationship of quality measures to accreditation and whether accreditation delivers better health outcomes.²

One excellent example of an accreditation program comes from the South Australian Department for Families and Communities, who developed the Service Excellence Program (SEP) in 2001 for accreditation reviews and quality improvement support. This program uses internationally accredited standards for health and community services, and is available for a range of services in the health, mental health, disability, neighbourhood houses, homelessness, housing and other community sectors. The flexible program provides significant support and is particularly aimed at a broad range and size of organisations new to quality. Currently over 220 organisations in South Australia participate in the program.

For more information see <www.dfc.sa.gov.au/sep>

References

1. Sunol R, Nicklin W, Bruneau C & Whittaker S. (2009). Promoting research into healthcare accreditation/external evaluation: advancing an ISQua initiative, International Journal for Quality in Health Care, vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 27-28.
2. Greenfield D & Braithwaite J. (2008). Health sector accreditation research: a systematic review, International Journal for Quality in Health Care, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 172-183, available from: <http://intqhc.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/20/3/172> (accessed June 2009).