International Healthcare Accreditation - Consumers

Consumers

How does an individual contemplating becoming a medical tourist ensure that the overseas healthcare they are planning to access is as safe as possible and is of adequate quality? For sure, it is not simply a matter of looking at hospital buildings and at mattresses, and it is certainly not just an issue of looking only at the prices charged. While architecturally pleasing rooms and easier access to satellite television and the internet may improve personal comfort, and a bargain basement price may help the wallet, what is often more important may include such issues as:

• the standards of governance in the hospital or clinic
• the healthcare providing establishment’s commitment to self-improvement, and to learn positively from errors
• the overall medical ethical standards operating within the organization
• the clinical staff’s ethical standards and their personal and collective commitment to caring for patients and the wider community
• the quality of the clinical staff, including their background educational attainment and training, and evidence of continuing professional development by those staff
• the quality and ethical standards of the management and their personal and collective commitment to caring for patients and the wider community
• the clinical track record of the hospital or clinic
• the infection control track record of the hospital or clinic
• the hospital may be located in a country where the environment and climate may bring a patient into contact with infectious and/or tropical diseases that are unfamiliar to them
• evidence of a robust, just and fair system to deal with complaints made by patients when things go wrong, as they inevitably will from time to time, and where appropriate to compensate the injured party in a fair and reasonable way

The above list is not exhaustive, but it represents a good start. Also, the intending medical tourist should check whether or not a hospital is wholly accredited by an international accreditation group, or if it is only partly accredited (e.g. for infection control), the latter being less inclined to create confidence in a potential consumer.

How does the person in the street access this type of quality information? This can be very difficult. Accreditation schemes well-recognised as providing services in the international healthcare accreditation field include:

• Trent Accreditation Scheme (based in UK-Europe) The former Trent Scheme (which ended in 2010) was the first scheme to accredit a hospital in Asia, in Hong Kong in 2000 .
• QHA Trent Accreditation, based in the UK ,,
• Joint Commission International, or JCI (based in the USA)
• Australian Council for Healthcare Standards International, or ACHSI (based in Australia)
• Accreditation Canada (formerly the Canadian Council on Health Services Accreditation or CCHSA)(based in Canada)
• Accreditation of France (La Haute Autorité de Santé) based in Paris, France.

The different accreditation schemes vary in approach, quality, size, intent, sourcing of surveyors and the skill of their marketing. They also vary in terms of how much they charge hospitals and healthcare institutions for their services. They all have web sites.