National Accreditation Body Responds To Day Hospital Feedback

National accreditation body responds to day hospital feedback

For the first time the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS), Australia's leading accreditation provider to hospitals, day procedure centres and other healthcare organisations, is launching a tailored accreditation program for day hospitals.

"In response to feedback from our day hospital members, we have developed a version of our Evaluation and Quality Improvement Program (EQuIP 4) specifically for privately owned, stand-alone day hospitals," commented ACHS Chief Executive, Mr Brian Johnston.

"The changes maintain the integrity of the EQuIP 4 standards whilst tailoring them for the day hospital sector. The new program significantly reduces documentation, frequency of on-site visits and is provided at a lower cost.

"The number of procedures undertaken in a day hospital setting in Australia is growing substantially each year. Therefore it is important to provide relevant quality improvement and accreditation services for this important sector."

Existing members who meet the eligibility criteria will be migrated progressively over to the new product from 1 January 2010 with support from their ACHS customer services manager. Eligible organisations are stand-alone, licensed and privately owned day hospitals with a Commonwealth Provider Number.

The program is consistent with EQuIP 4, while making the following changes (which are appropriate for the stand-alone day hospital setting):
* reducing pre-survey documentation
* reducing the survey frequency; and
* reducing the on-site verification requirements.

Only one onsite survey in a three-year cycle aims to reduce the burden to day hospitals instead of the previous two onsite surveys in a four-year cycle. The accreditation awarded following a successful survey is for a three-year period.

For more information about EQuIP for Day Hospitals, please contact the ACHS on
+61 2 9281 9955 or email: [email protected]

Media information:
Communications Manager,
Megan Taylor,
02 9281 9955
or 0416 280 826

Established in 1974, the ACHS is Australia's leading healthcare accreditation agency and is recognised by the International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua) for both its standards and accreditation program. Over 1200 individual hospitals and healthcare organisations are members of ACHS quality improvement programs.

SOURCE: Australian Council on Healthcare Standards