Essay about Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations

The quality of health care service is of a paramount importance in the modern epoch. In the situation when the quality of life is constantly growing, modern science and technologies are rapidly developing, it seems to be quite natural that health care services which are vitally important should be of the highest quality. Actually, this problem disturbs many specialists, including not only health care professionals, but also politicians, people who struggle for the equality of basic civil rights and opportunities, including the right to health care, and businessmen. In general, the modern business is really concerned about the health of employees because it affects dramatically the performance of any company. In this respect, one of the ways of the improvement of the quality of health care services and condition of work is the introduction of accreditation.

Basically, accreditation is a process by which an impartial organization will review a company’s operations to ensure that the company is conducting business in a manner consistent with national standards (URAC, 2007). It should be pointed out that accreditation is mainly designed to let employers and consumers distinguish between health plans based on quality. It should be pointed out that the quality implies not only the quality of services but also the quality of the conditions of work of employees. In such a way, accreditation targets not only health environment for employees but also it is supposed to provide consumers with reliable products and services which are definitely secure for human health because it establishes national health standards which health care organizations on the local level should meet (Gitterman103).

Obviously, accreditation is of a paramount importance, especially in the modern epoch because the growing concerns of people about their health, which though are not just the result of their natural desire to lead a healthy lifestyle, but they are also the result of objective factors (Scandlen, 1554). To put it more precisely, nowadays environmental threats to human health are constantly growing and people are under a permanent threat of getting some health problem, such as diabetes, which is provoked by the changes in the lifestyle and nutrition of people, or asthma, provoked by air pollution.

Naturally, in such a situation, it is extremely important to implement such mechanisms as accreditation to ensure the health quality of service and products delivered by companies to customers as well as secure workplace environment. At the same time, the implementation of accreditation is not enough, in addition it is necessary to provide a thorough control over its fulfillment. For this purpose the Utilization Review Accreditation Commission was created. Basically, this commission targets at the accreditation of many types of health care organization (Tietze and Sinha, 311). In fact, in the process of accreditation the URAC visits sites and checks whether health care organizations meet the established standards or not and health care organizations need to improve the quality of their services in accordance with national standards. Also, accreditation commissions can define the status of health care provider, for instance my health care provider has got accreditation without recommendation that demonstrates satisfactory compliance with accreditation of health care organization standards in all performance areas and this accreditation is valid for 3 years. The URAC elevate the existing health care standards nationwide to the level of national standards that may be viewed as a guarantee of the quality of health care services, especially from the part of business heath care organizations (Tietze and Sinha, 311).

Thus, taking into account all above mentioned, it is possible to conclude that accreditation plays an extremely important role in the life of the modern society since it contributes to the establishment of the national health care standards in different organizations working in different parts of the US that provides Americans with health care services of higher quality.

Works cited

  • Scandlen, G. (2005). Consumer-driven health care: Just a tweak or a revolution? Health Affairs 24(6), 1554.
  • Habibi, K. (2001). Evolution of Managed Care. Retrieved on August 29, 2007 from http://www.orthopedictechreview.com/issues/novdec01/editorial.htm
  • Website Resources NCQA (2007). Managed care Organizations, Accreditation MCO. Retrieved August 23, 2007 fromhttp://web.ncqa.org/tabid/67/Default.aspx
  • New York Health Plan Association (n.d.). Managed Care vs. FFS Chart. Retrieved on August 29, 2007 from http://www.nyhpa.org/AboutHMOsinNY/ManagedCareVs.FFSChart.asp
  • URAC (2007). General Questions About URAC Accreditation. Retrieved on August 29, 2007 from http://www.urac.org/accreditation/
  • Gitterman, D. P. (2000). The president and the power of the purchaser: Consumer protection and managed care in the United States. California Management Review 43 (1); 103.
  • Tietze, M. F. and Sinha, S. K. (2003). Impact of managed care on healthcare delivery practices: The perception of healthcare administrators and clinical practitioners / Practitioner application. Journal of Healthcare Management 48 (5); pg. 311.

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