International accreditation of the HAS certification standards for healthcare facilities.

On June 7th, HAS was accredited by ISQuaEEA (International Society for Quality in Healthcare External Evaluation Association) for its new certification standards for healthcare facilities.  

ISQuaEEA works to foster the improvement of health, safety, and quality of health care worldwide. In addition to various events organized and a network of health structures for quality development, ISQuaEEA accredits organizations that carry out external evaluations in health facilities. 

To this end, ISQuaEEA offers different levels of accreditation :

• Accreditation of standards: organization standards designed to ensure the quality of health and social welfare are assessed against ISQuaEEA’s reference. Submissions to ISQuaEEA comprise: an organization’s self-assessment, their benchmark, and information in support of the methodology used for benchmark development. Peers - international assessment experts - then assess the level of compliance to the organization’s standard against ISQuaEEA’s priniples.
• Accreditation of organizations’ external evaluation and surveyor training programs: the organization, programs, and management/training of surveyors are assessed in relation to ISQuaEEA standards. Three peers - international surveyors - come to the organization for a week-long investigation. Prior to this on-site survey, the organization submits a self-assessment.

With the accreditation of HAS’ improved version of its quality-of-care standards for health care facilities, the HAS obtained international recognition highlighting 3 particularities:

• France is the only country to deploy a standard across all healthcare facilities.
• The new HAS standards are focused on results, placing assessment at the forefront for healthcare facilities.
• The HAS’ manual will form the basis of real quantitative observation of assessment results that will aid in the development of tools aimed to improve the quality and safety of care.

ISQuaEEA’s approval of the changes made to the French certification standards, which breaks from traditional standards, can create momentum in other countries. For French healthcare facilities, international recognition of HAS’s standard attests to a strong commitment to rigor and quality and constitutes a mark of trust.

The HAS is now carrying out its self-assessment in preparation for the survey of the international investigators scheduled for October 2022 with the aim of obtaining renewal of the accreditation of its organization and surveyor training program as obtained previously. The accreditation decision of the HAS certification reference standard is published on the ISQuaEEA website at www.ieea.ch.

Countries with accredited bodies around the world :