L'accréditation des hôpitaux belges - Quels impacts sur la qualité et la sécurité des soins ?

Abstract

In Belgium patients of hospitals are becoming more and more demanding about the quality and safety of care. Many hospitals are starting to engage an accreditation process with organisms such as “Accreditation Canada International”, “Joint National Commission”, “Nederlands Instituut voor Accreditatie in de Zorg” or even “Haute Autorité de Santé” in France. We also know that funding a hospital now will also depend on its ability to provide quality cares. Accreditation is seen as an acknowledgement of the quality and safety care. In our study we tried to investigate the real impacts of the process on the organization of a hospital, its environment, on the quality and the security cares. First of all, we performed an analysis of documentation concerning accreditation and the impacts it can have on hospitals to be able to clearly understand the subject. After that we met some professionals working in hospitals in Belgium and in charge of the implantation of the process. The results of these interviews show us that accreditation has significant impact on the quality and the security care. There is a formalization of the medical practices guided by repositories but the process establishes a real continuous improvement in terms of quality and safety care. But health professionals aren’t still inclined to change their personal practices for what they consider as an “administrative task”. That’s why the involvement of the management and communication are very important to imply them in the process. If a hospital succeeds the implementation of the accreditation it can better detect undesirable events and decrease them. It can also improve its practices as patient identification, infectious risk management, information management related to patient and its support, medicine management, fall prevention, performance indicators, … Our study shows that the impacts identified above are real but a good implementation of the process is only possible with the implication of the health professionals (medical, paramedical) and administrative professionals. The analysis of document and the interviews of the professionals in hospitals demonstrate that the accreditation is a real opportunity for hospitals to improve continually their practices and management.