The sustainability of hospital accreditation models: a cross-sectional study

Despite the importance of hospital accreditation, its sustainability is jeopardized. This is due to the disparity between the rapid changes in the health sector and the accreditation standards that remain unchanged. This study aims to examine what improvements are important in enhancing the sustainability of the hospital accreditation model in Saudi Arabia.

All quality managers in accredited Saudi Arabian hospitals were invited to participate in a cross-sectional questionnaire-based study in July-August 2022. A structured questionnaire was developed, tested, piloted, and factorially validated using exploratory factor analysis. On a 5-point Likert scale, respondents were asked to rate the importance of recommended changes that are proposed to enhance the sustainability of accreditation policies, standards development, evaluation methods, and the evaluation team. The importance of the recommendations, according to the respondents, was described using the relative importance index, while multivariate linear regression was used to analyse the association with independent variables.

A total of 158 valid questionnaires (64% response rate) were included in the analysis. On average, participants had 6.9 (SD 2.1) years of experience in quality management. The overall mean importance attached to improving standards development, accreditation policies, evaluation team, and evaluation methods were 3.55, 3.43, 3.41, and 3.21, on a 5-point scale, respectively. Shifting the focus of accreditation standards from structure and compliance to outcomes and improvement (mean importance = 4.47), updating standards periodically to reflect current best practices and research (mean importance = 4.41), and integrating consumer perspectives in all aspects of accreditation (mean importance = 4.37) were the most important perceived recommendations. Multivariate regression analysis yielded that managers with more years of experience had significantly higher mean scores on the importance of improving accreditation policies (β = 0.120, P = .037), standards development (β = 0.246, P < .001), evaluation methods (β = 0.268, P < .001), and the evaluation team (β = 0.369, P < .001).

Improving accreditation policies, standards development, evaluation methods, and the evaluation team are important in enhancing the sustainability of hospital accreditation programmes. This study offers insights to assist policymakers and other stakeholders in redesigning traditional accreditation models to make them more sustainable and that can supplement other performance improvement tools in improving the quality of healthcare services.