title: Profiling health-care accreditation organizations: an international survey.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe global patterns among health-care accreditation organizations (AOs) and to identify determinants of sustainability and opportunities for improvement.
  
  
  METHODS
  Web-based questionnaire survey.
  
  
  METHODS
  Organizations offering accreditation services nationally or internationally to health-care provider institutions or networks at primary, secondary or tertiary level in 2010.
  
  
  METHODS
  s) External relationships, scope and activity public information.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Forty-four AOs submitted data, compared with 33 in a survey 10 years earlier. Of the 30 AOs that reported survey activity in 2000 and 2010, 16 are still active and stable or growing. New and old programmes are increasingly linked to public funding and regulation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  While the number of health-care AOs continues to grow, many fail to thrive. Successful organizations tend to complement mechanisms of regulation, health-care funding or governmental commitment to quality and health-care improvement that offer a supportive environment. Principal challenges include unstable business (e.g. limited market, low uptake) and unstable politics. Many organizations make only limited information available to patients and the public about standards, procedures or results.
authors: Centre for Clinical Governance Research, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, 2052 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.cdshaw@btinternet.com
authors: Charles D
authors: CD
authors: Shaw
authors: Jeffrey
authors: J
authors: Braithwaite
authors: Max
authors: M
authors: Moldovan
authors: Wendy
authors: W
authors: Nicklin
authors: Ileana
authors: I
authors: Grgic
authors: Triona
authors: T
authors: Fortune
authors: Stuart
authors: S
authors: Whittaker
mesh_terms: D000068:Accreditation / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003625:Data Collection; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000592:standards; D006761:Hospitals / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D012955:Societies, Medical / Q000458:organization & administration; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: accreditation; certification; cross-border care; health-care standards; institutional regulation; public information