Health & Wellness Tourism Accreditation

Accreditation is a process of validation for healthcare and other organizations.

Healthcare organizations seek accreditation to demonstrate their ability to meet predetermined criteria and standards established by an accrediting body.

International hospital accreditation surveys compare candidate organizations to the average quality and service that exists in the community in which the care is delivered.

International Hospital Accreditation Standards Measure the Following:

Patient Safety

Access & Continuity of Care

Patient & Family Rights

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Patient Assessment

Direct Patient Care

Anesthesia & Surgical Care

Medication Management

Patient & Family Education

Quality Improvement & Patient Safety

Prevention & Control of Infections

Governance, Leadership, & Direction

Facility Management & Safety

Staff Qualifications & Education

Management of Information

Medical Professional Education

Human Subjects Research Programs

Helping Public and Private Stakeholders

The Center for Health Tourism Strategy helps public and private stakeholders to build, grow and manage their health & wellness tourism destinations & communities.

We are defining the future of health & wellness travel and tourism by providing you a variety of generous resources you can use for:

 

Myths and Realities of International Accreditation

 

If you are intend to achieve international quality and safety accreditation for your healthcare organization, more than 40 different and laudable programs exist around the world. Some are renowned only to the their proprietors and are essentially unrecognized or meaningless to insurers, employers, and the public..

Many media articles and reports erroneously report or infer that one accreditation is better than another.  For example, many websites and media reports assert that the hospital will treat the patient in English because the accrediting body is located in the United States.  Some proponents tell hospitals that they must have a certain brand of accreditation to be considered for insurance contracts for medical tourism services. These are all purported as fact - with nothing whatsoever to support them.  

JCI is not about medical tourism, it is about quality, safety and the review elements and standards indicated above.  (They will change to the 6th edition in January 2017).  There is no attribution of higher standards than the current standard of care of the community. In fact, the standards require only that the hospital or healthcare organization meet the average level of its neighbors in the local market.

JCI is accredited by an organization called ISQua, the International Society for Quality in Health Care.  ISQua accredits JCI and 22 of its sibling rivals in the market. Just like a mother tries to love all her children the same, ISQua is the "mother" accreditor to all the siblings. Some just cost more than others.

Read our blogs to learn more

There are many articles on the Center for Health Tourism Strategy website about designing the quality policies, procedures, and systems to document monitor and manage clinical and customer service quality and patient safety. We believe strongly that while accreditation is a significant step in the right direction, even those not accredited have a responsibility to develop and maintain clinical quality and patient safety programs. If you read these articles, you will accelerate your knowledge and understanding of what is involved, and how to design a unique product that can be marketed by either the practitioner, facility or even for a specific destination.

JCI Accreditation for Healthcare Organizations

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Many myths are repeated about medical tourism and JCI accreditation. One of the greatest fallacies is that American patients demand JCI.  This is unsubstantiated.  Most American patients have no idea who accredits the hospitals and healthcare organizations in their community. This is because several years ago the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) opened the approval of accrediting bodies beyond the Joint Commission to include many other contenders in the marketplace.  Now a hospital or healthcare organization in the USA can choose state certification, Joint Commission and about 20 other programs available to meet their external validation objectives.  Insurers and employers also accept the wide variety of accreditation programs in the market as long as the insurer or employer recognizes and respects the accreditor.  They also know that when they see some of these accreditation certificates that the prices may be higher than non-JCI accredited competitors, so JCI accreditation presents a double-edged sword. You are to be praised for being accredited but the value in that is in the eyes of the payor as to whether or not they want to pay more for services that may be of an acceptable quality without the JCI logo attached and the commensurate increase in prices to cover accreditation costs.

 

We are here to answer your questions

When you are our client, we accept no referral fees or kickbacks for our recommendations of any accreditation programs. We have no horse in the race.  We applaud you for considering accreditation no matter which brand you choose.

Between us, Mercury Advisory Group experts are familiar with nearly 100 standards and accreditation programs for hospitals, clinics, air ambulance, ambulatory surgery, outpatient and inpatient rehabilitation, substance abuse rehab, home health services, spa and thermalism and more.  We can help you decide which is right to align with your objectives, budget, time frame, and scope of services. We begin with your WHY and see if we can help you reach your goals in the most timely and cost effective way. We provide insights you need to make your quality and safety assurances relevant and meaningful to your customers.  

We can also help you create a new national accreditation and take you through the process to achieve ISQua accreditation of your standards if that is the strategy that makes the most sense for you. Others have done so. Check the list.

"Building our Quality and Safety program was by far the most challenging aspect of building a health tourism program. Working with the experts from Mercury Advisory Group saved us time, money and reduced our risk."

LEARN MORE

Schedule a brief conversation with one of our experienced team leaders and learn how you can benefit from working with us.