title: Evaluating the benefits and limitations of an accreditation system.
abstract: While accreditation programmes are not a quality assurance panacea, long experience has shown their benefits to substantially outweigh real or perceived negative impacts. It is argued that such systems are an essential basis for more sophisticated quality assurance programmes. Accreditation programmes also have unexpected benefits in the general management of hospitals.
authors.affiliation: International Hospital Federation, London, UK.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pickering
mesh_terms: D000068:Accreditation / Q000592:standards*; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D006739:Hospital Administration / Q000592:standards; D006779:Hospitals, Public / Q000592:standards*; D009042:Motivation; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006113:United Kingdom