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10 Hospital Accreditation KCE reports 70
A quality check evaluating the correspondence of the data obtained by the literature
search and the survey was performed to ensure the information found was reliable.
Then the obtained data were linked to the developed framework (cfr Chapter 2.1
‘Determination of the framework to analyse accreditation’), summaries per country
were made and a quantitative analysis of all the information was performed. The
answers received by the survey were also compared to the data transmitted by Charles
Shaw regarding his previous surveys v in order to identify possible evolutions and trends.
A country expert meeting vi was organised in order to validate the key findings resulting
from the literature study and the survey and to complete lacking information on the
‘Methods’ building block of the Common Framework as well as on the ‘Effect
perspective’. Moreover some do’s and don’ts based on the lessons learned from the
concerned systems abroad for a possible Belgian accreditation system were discussed.
Furthermore the national accreditation websites available in French, Dutch or English
were in addition explored together with case studies presented on the conference on
Hospital Accreditation organized by the Association Belge des Hôpitaux in March 2007.
It is important to note that the international comparison has some limitations. Country
specific material on accreditation is incomplete. Reports and documentation are of
varying quality, data from websites are often unreliable, unrepresentative, not up to date
or solely in the national language. Representation of country experts at our expert
meeting did not cover the full scope of the studies member states. Consequently most
complete sources of information stem from our neighbouring countries. Much less is
available on countries of the Mediterranean. This must be taken into account when
considering fragmentary information, for instance on some regions.
In the international survey it was impossible to manage open questions since feasibility
with regard to time spending to complete the survey and treatment of the answers
afterwards were factors to be taken into account. The limitation of closed questions is
that less qualitative information could be derived from the survey.
Since the study focuses on the European systems there is no thorough study of the
older accreditation systems, such as those in Canada or Australia. Where European
programs are based on similar systems, reference was provided.
2.4 THE METHODOLOGY FOR THE 2 ND RESEARCH
QUESTION, ‘EXPLORATION OF ACCREDITATION
OPPORTUNITIES FOR BELGIAN HOSPITALS’
A systematic literature study, which focused on Belgian quality initiatives falling within
the definition of hospital accreditation, was performed. Given that information on
quality initiatives in Belgium had already been collected via the 1 st literature study (cfr
Chapter 2.3 ‘The methodology for the 1st research question’) and the databases then
explored were inadequate to find information on the Belgian system, it was decided to
explore exclusively Google.
A search strategy using 8 keywords combinations, including the words “compétences”,
“agrément”, “visitatie” and “accréditation” was performed vii .
Some additional information on quality initiatives was obtained by contacts in the
sector.
v Charles Shaw carried out surveys in 2000 (gathering data for 1999), 2002 (for 2001) and 2004 (for 2003)
vi 5 countries participated to this meeting, i.e. Czech Republic, National Programme, Italy - Marche,
Regional Programme, Spain – FADA-JCI, Regional Programme, The Netherlands, National Programme,
and UK – HAQU, Regional Programme
vii For the detailed methodology on the research question 2, see Appendix 6, 7 and 8