title: The nature and value of small and community hospital accreditation.
abstract: Discusses the characteristics of health care accreditation schemes, especially the implications of their voluntary status. Singles out the Trent small hospital accreditation scheme (TSHAS) for detailed and systematic evaluation. Describes the quantitative and qualitative evaluation methods, which involved a meta-analysis of the literature, interviews with key staff and questionnaires completed by other participants in TSHAS. The main findings, divided into ten themes, confirm much of the published work on accreditation. The findings also provide new insights into the nature and value of health care accreditation, notably about the direction in which accreditation needs to go if both community and larger hospital accreditation is to survive.
authors.affiliation: Nuffield Institute for Health, University of Leeds, UK.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hurst
mesh_terms: D000068:Accreditation / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003625:Data Collection; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006075:Governing Board; D006764:Hospitals, Community / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards*; D007318:Inservice Training / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards; D008330:Management Audit; D008370:Manuals as Topic; D009937:Organizational Objectives; D011361:Professional Competence; D016730:Program Development; D015397:Program Evaluation; D006113:United Kingdom