External Evaluation of Four Hospitals According to Patient-centred Care Standards

INTRODUCTION: Hospital accreditation is a multi-factorial issue. The aim of the current study was to accredit social security organization and university hospitals (that certificated by ISO 9001-2008) in Isfahan, the second largest city of Iran, based on Joint Commission International (JCI) accreditation standards. METHODS: Accreditation of four hospitals was evaluated and compared in a cross-sectional study. Seven checklists were driven from patient-centered JCI accreditation standards to cover indices of access of patients to care and continuity of care (ACC), patients and families rights (PFR), patients and families education (PFE), assessment of patients (AOP), care of patients (COP), analgesic and surgical care (ASC), and medication management and use (MMU). They were filled out by seven inspectors. The findings were analyzed by SPSS 14 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL). RESULTS: Beheshti and Zahra hospitals demonstrated the lowest and the highest mean levels preparation, respectively (60 vs. 68.5 percent, respectively). Also, Beheshti hospital revealed the lowest prepared levels in AOP, ASC, MMU and PFE among all evaluated hospitals; the corresponding mean amounts of preparation were 68, 82.5, 56 and 42 percent, respectively. Whereas Zahra hospital showed the highest prepared levels in AOP, COP, MMU and PFE among all evaluated hospitals; the mean amounts of preparation were 82, 61.5, 84 and 57 percent, respectively. No significant difference was found among the four hospitals in any of the seven indices. DISCUSSION: The four evaluated hospitals were not fully prepared to present the best possible patient-centered care system.