Tehran University Medical Journal

Background: Hospital accreditation is a systematic external evaluation of a hospital’s structures, processes and results (outputs/ outcome) by an independent professional accreditation body using pre-established optimum standards. Hospital accreditation has an important role in improving the quality, safety, effectiveness and efficacy of health care services. The effectiveness of an accreditation system depends on the quality and conformity of its methods, standards and surveyors. This study aimed to evaluate the hospital accreditation method from the perspective of Iranian hospital managers.
Methods: This descriptive, applied and cross-sectional study was carried out in 2015 using a valid and reliable questionnaire. The study population consisted of 914 hospital managers. Overall 547 hospital managers were surveyed through stratified random sampling. SPSS software was used for data analysis.

Background: Hospital accreditation is a systematic external evaluation of a hospital’s structures, processes and results by an independent professional accreditation body using pre-established optimum standards. This study aimed to evaluate the hospital accreditation system.
Methods: This descriptive and cross-sectional study was carried out between November 2015 and February 2016 using a questionnaire covering accreditation standards, methods, surveyors, implementation and effects. The study population consisted of 161 hospital managers in Tehran province, Iran. Overall 87 hospital managers were surveyed through stratified random sampling.
Results: The mean score of managers’ satisfaction of hospital accreditation system was 2.93 out of 5 score. About 16 percent of managers were satisfied with the hospital accreditation system. Hospital managers were most satisfied with accreditation effects (3.14) and least satisfied with accreditation standards (2.54). Hospital managers were satisfied with surveyors’ attitude, number of survey days and the number of surveyors in the accreditation team. They were least satisfied with the lack of consistency among surveyors, lack of transparency of standards, too many standards and low competency of surveyors. Hospital managers mostly believed that accreditation should be done by Ministry of Health, compulsory, and every two years. About 97 percent of managers agreed that self-assessment is necessary and beneficial prior to the accreditation survey.
Conclusion: Accreditation was moderately successful in Tehran hospitals. Accreditation had the most effect on improving patient safety and meeting patients' rights and least effect on improving employees' job satisfaction and involving doctors in quality improvement. Strengthening Iran hospital accreditation system, training managers and employees on implementing standards, and providing necessary resources make it possible to achieve accreditation goals.

Background: Hospital accreditation is an external evaluation of a hospital’s structures, processes and results by an independent professional accreditation body using pre-established optimum standards. Accreditation has an important role in improving the quality, safety, effectiveness and efficiency of hospital services. This study aimed to examine the effects of hospital accreditation program from hospitals managers’ perspective.
Methods: This descriptive and cross-sectional study was carried out in 2015 using a valid and reliable questionnaire designed to examine accreditation effects on hospital performance, hospital employees, patients, and the society. The study population consisted of 914 hospital managers in Iran. Overall, 547 hospital managers were surveyed through stratified random sampling.
Results: About 71% of hospitals achieved grade one and above accreditation status. The mean score of accreditation positive effects in hospitals was 3.16±0.66 out of 5 (Average). Almost 38% of managers were satisfied with the accreditation results in their hospitals. Hospital accreditation program was successful in improving patient and staff safety, reducing medical errors and enhancing staff competencies. Its success in improving communication, promoting organizational culture, continuous quality improvement, resource utilization, and reducing nosocomial infections and hospital mortality rates was moderate. Accreditation was less successful in improving staff satisfaction, getting physicians involved in process improvement, practicing evidence based medicine, attracting patients and increasing hospital income. A statistically significant correlation was found between hospital size and accreditation results (P=0.038, r=-0.090). There was no correlation between using quality management models and getting better accreditation results (P=0.085). However, there was correlation between using accreditation consultants and positive accreditation results (P=0.045, r=-0.087). Utilizing hospital resources, organizational learning, continuous quality improvement and effective communication had the most effect on accreditation success.
Conclusion: The accreditation program had a moderate effect on hospital performance. It is costly to implement accreditation standards in hospitals. Hence, changes should be made to the accreditation system including accreditation standards and methods in order to have more positive effects on the staff and hospitals’ performance.

Background: Medical errors are those errors or mistakes committed by healthcare professionals due to errors of omission, errors in planning, and errors of execution of a planned healthcare action whether or not it is harmful to the patient. Medical error in hospitals increases morbidity and mortality and decreases patient satisfaction and hospital productivity. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of medical errors in Iranian hospitals.
Methods: This study was conducted using systematic review and meta-analysis approaches. All articles written in English and Persian on the prevalence of medical errors in Iranian hospitals up to March 2019 were searched in Web of Science, PubMed, Elsevier, Scopus, Magiran, IranMedex and Scientific Information Database (SID) databases, and Google and Google Scholar search engines. In addition, reference lists of the retrieved papers were hand-searched. A total of 9 studies matching the inclusion criteria were identified, reviewed, and analyzed using comprehensive meta-analysis software.