International healthcare accreditation
This occurs in most parts of the developed world— a setting in which people continue to express increasingly high expectations for the quality of care.
[2] The United States is a notable exception among developed Western countries in regard to its availability and affordability of healthcare.
In 2007, 45.7 million US citizens (i.e. 15.3% of the national population) had no health insurance whatsoever[3] Despite this, in 2007 the USA spent nearly $2.3 trillion on healthcare, roughly 16% of the country's gross domestic product, and more than twice as much per capita as the OECD average.
Accreditation has been defined as "A self-assessment and external peer assessment process used by health care organisations to accurately assess their level of performance in relation to established standards and to implement ways to continuously improve"[5] Interest in hospital accreditation ascends as far as the World Health Organization (see external links).
Furthermore, other accreditation groups have been set up with openly declared remits to look after just one particular area of healthcare, such as laboratory medicine or psychiatric services or sexual health.
This includes not only hand-on patient care but also training and education of staff, credentials, clinical governance and audit, research activity, ethical standards etc.
The best accreditation schemes also assess academic and intellectual activity (such as teaching and research) within those hospitals that they survey (see later) and have a clear and declared interest in medical ethics.
When it comes to who pays the bills for healthcare, it may be the government or it may be the individual (sometimes either by direct payment, and sometimes through employer-run schemes, insurance companies etc.
It is becoming increasingly important as millions of (especially) Europeans and Americans seek healthcare overseas outside of their own countries for a variety of reasons, including and especially affordability.
It represents a growing multibillion-euro/dollar/pound business of increasing importance to the economies of many countries, such as Singapore, Thailand, India, Hong Kong, Malaysia and the Philippines.
"In competitive health care markets where patients have an increasing array of choices, quality is the most important differentiator for organizations striving for sustainability and both national and regional leadership.
International accreditation has become a powerful indicator of a healthcare organization’s commitment to high-quality care and patient safety.
[7]" Reflecting this, much of the discussion on medical tourism blog sites reflects the increasing importance of international healthcare and hospital accreditation to this industry Recent News and blogs | MedTripInfo How does an individual contemplating becoming a medical tourist ensure that the overseas healthcare they are planning to access is as safe as possible and is of adequate quality?
While architecturally pleasing rooms and easier access to satellite television and the internet may improve personal comfort, and a bargain basement price may help the wallet, what is often more important may include such issues as: The above list is not exhaustive, but it represents a good start.
No one healthcare system has a monopoly of excellence and no one provider country or scheme can claim to be the total arbiter of quality.
For example, some countries, such as the USA, perform very poorly when it comes to providing anything close to universal access to healthcare of adequate quality to the population living within their own borders.
Other fields of accreditation pertain to general medical practices ("GP" or Family Medicine) is some westernized countries.
