While healthcare accreditation helps in improving the quality of service delivery in healthcare, it does not guarantee that the services offered are of high quality as expected. It is imperative to understand the meaning of both accreditation and quality in healthcare so as to comprehend the relationship between the two. In most cases, healthcare accreditation is confused to equal quality in healthcare. It is significant to understand that accreditation is an approval tool used to certify that specific healthcare standards and regulations have been met by healthcare organizations (Turner 34). While healthcare accreditation ensures that specific standards and regulations have been attained, it does not guarantee the quality of services offered by the healthcare organization.
Quality in healthcare services aims at reducing errors and providing services at a standard above the regular or expected standards. High quality healthcare service is attributed to fewer errors and better healthcare services while poor quality healthcare is associated with numerous errors and poor healthcare services. A health care organization can meet all the specific standards and regulations without necessarily providing quality healthcare services. In this case, the healthcare organization will be accredited on meeting the specific standards in comparison to other healthcare organization (Turner 37). However, the organization’s standards may fail to meet its patient’s requirements and expectations, thus low quality of healthcare service.
While accreditation in healthcare ensures that the healthcare organization meets the minimal standards and regulation, it does not guarantee the quality of healthcare services provided by the healthcare organization. It is imperative to note that accreditation is used as a tool to improve the quality of healthcare by ensuring that healthcare organizations meet the minimal standards and regulation. However, accreditation does not always guarantee quality I healthcare.
Works Cited
Turner, Leigh G. "Quality in health care and globalization of health services: accreditation and
regulatory oversight of medical tourism companies."International Journal for Quality in
Health Care (2010): mzq078.
