Question

Read the paragraphs below and respectfully disagree with the conclusions drawn by the original posters. What factors are opposite than the paragraphs below and why? What strikes you as particularly persuasive regarding when governments should retain or outsource accreditation?

I feel that the role of accrediting bodies is to maintain a set of professional standards. These need to be met by all those who provide a service or product to the population. These standards are in place and must be met in order to ensure the safety and quality of what is being offered.

            The government should manage the accreditation of any medical facility or provider of healthcare services when there is any chance that failure to meet certain standards or regulations would endanger the publics safety. Accreditation agencies such as the Joint Commission are put into place in order to “measure, assess and improve the performance of a healthcare organization” (TJC, 2018). Accreditation can be performed by other agencies when the concern is for the level of education or knowledge needed in order to perform a specific occupation. This would include those occupations that work closely with providing physical treatments such as Occupational Therapy and Radiation Therapy. The use of this level of accreditation is used to ensure that the degree of education being provided to those studying these fields will meet or exceed the accreditation standards for a facility that offers this care level (U.S. Department of Education, n.d.).

            When policy makers are considering whether to outsource accreditation to a private body they need to consider several factors but the most important are those listed by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). These include the 9 measures of healthcare performance which are (Potential pros and cons, 2014):

Efficiency

Appropriateness

Continuity

Safety

Efficiency

Effectiveness

Availability

Timeliness

Respect and caring

Meeting these 9 measures will ensure that the private accreditation agency is in line with those of the federal governments and meet the same high standards. By using these measures to evaluate the standards of the private agency, policy makers will be able to select and decide based on a balanced comparison related to standards already in place.

            The choice of an outsourced accreditation could cost the stakeholders due to the public not being aware of the standards that are in place with the private agency. Reputation is a driving force in how patients view their care provider. By not utilizing a recognizable agency for accreditation, the facility can face a decrease in revenue.

Answer 1

The paragraphs poster makes a conclusion that an outsourced accreditation could cost the stakeholders and revenue will decrease because public will doubt the outsourced accreditation with regarding their standards. The accreditation is most required to maintain standards of health care services. Accreditation programs improve the process of care provided by healthcare services. Accreditation programs should be supported as a tool to improve the quality of healthcare services. But, the reputation of the health care service providers is not only solely depends on accreditation. It is also depend on various factors like how much they are successful in dealing with health problems in past, their service quality, reputations of doctors engaged, cost of service etc. So, the outsourced accreditation will not be much impact on the reputation of a care provider if it is performing well in other parameters as explained above.

The accountability of the private agency can be fixed and their standards can be published publically, so public are well aware about the quality standard of the accreditation agency. The government can outsourced the accreditation to a private organization if they are satisfied their quality standards, resources and about the qualification and experience of persons engaged in accreditation. Only reputed organization should be given accreditation. The outsourced accreditation can take lesser time with greater efficiency than government.

The factors like efficiency, safety, accountability, required capacities, past success, and available resource strike while deciding outsourcing accreditation. If one is satisfied on these factors, one can go for private accreditation.