[Towards an accreditation system for the Dutch hospitals]

The development of the Netherlands system for accreditation of hospitals started in 1989 in the Pilotproject Accreditation (PACE). This resulted in the establishment of the Netherlands Institute for Accreditation of Hospitals (NAIH) early 1999, by the Dutch Association of Hospitals, the Dutch Association of University Hospitals, the Dutch Organisation of Medical Specialists and the PACE foundation. Dutch hospitals may request (voluntary) for an accredition for their whole organisation or for parts of it, independent of the used quality system. An accreditation assesses whether organizational requirements are available for quality assurance. Accreditation is not primarily aimed to account for organizational quality, but rather to find points for improvement. The survey is carried out by peers: experts from other Dutch hospitals. The frame of reference used in accreditation is composed of 35 departmentwise standards and a hospitalwide standard 'Quality system'. All standards are developed by people in Dutch hospitals. NIAH can accept certificates for parts of the hospital (e.g. laboratoria) issues by organisations. The system is complementary to the 'visitities' which are organized by the medical specialist societies in the Netherlands. From 1996-1998 trial accreditations were carried out in 19 Dutch hospitals. These showed that the accreditation system has an added value for Dutch hospitals.