Kontakt 2012, 14(4):410-420 | DOI: 10.32725/kont.2012.041

Importance of accreditation of hospitals for nursingNursing

Jana Somrová^1,2,*, Sylva Bártlová¹

¹ Jihočeská univerzita v Českých Budějovicích, Zdravotně sociální fakulta, katedra ošetřovatelství a porodní asistence

² Nemocnice Písek, a. s.

The process of the accreditation of healthcare institutions presents a considerable progress in nursing with participation of whole teams of equivalent partners: general nurses, healthcare technicians, physiotherapists, nutritional therapists, radiological assistants, physicians and managers. At the present time, the accreditation of healthcare institutions is the most effective tool for achieving quality nursing care. The interest in the accreditation as an effective tool for the quality control and management is increasing worldwide. Within the framework of a research examination, we were interested in a question how the members of the top and middle management - deputy director for nursing activity, head nurses and ward sisters in accredited healthcare institutions - consider the problems of accreditations and how, in their opinions, the accreditation of healthcare institutions contributes to the quality nursing care and patient safety. The research examination was performed in selected accredited healthcare institutions based on quantitative research by using an anonymous questionnaire. Ninety-five percent of respondents stated that in their healthcare institution, there are established programmes for enhancing the quality. According to the respondents, before the accreditation, all the healthcare institutions monitored the satisfaction of patients and staff members, a further monitored indicator of the quality being the prevalence of decubiti; 89% of respondents mentioned that they furthermore followed keeping of the healthcare documentation, 79% of respondents stated that before the accreditation, they monitored the frequency of falls in the course of the hospitalization and 71% of respondents also mentioned following of nosocomial infections before the accreditation. The most typical indicators of the quality in searching for risks, which could damage a patient or staff member and which were included into the course of the preparation for the accreditation examination, were as follows: errors in the medication, deliberate departure of a patient, cannula sepsis, injury with contaminated needle. Members of the management considered the following most important indicators of the quality of the nursing care: prevalence of decubiti, falls, medication mistake, satisfaction of the personnel, and nosocomial infections. The question whether the nursing care quality was improved in association with the accreditation was answered by 64% of members of the management: that the improvement was considerable, to the European level; 20% of respondents mentioned a distinct improvement in the nursing care. Only 16% of respondents were not able to evaluate the improvement in the nursing care quality. In opinions of managing staff members, the research examination demonstrated that the accreditation of hospitals warrants quality nursing care and patient safety associated with strict adhering to accreditation standards including quality indicators.

Keywords: accreditation; safety; decubiti; quality indicator; nursing documentation

Received: May 4, 2012; Accepted: September 21, 2012; Prepublished online: December 21, 2012; Published: December 30, 2012  Show citation