보건복지부 영문홈페이지

Health care institution accreditation system successfully acquired international accreditation

-The domestic health institution accreditation survey standards acquired the accreditation for International Society for Quality in Healthcare -

Ministry of Health and Welfare (Minister Rim, Chae Min) announced that the domestic medical institution accreditation system has acquired accreditation from the International Society for Quality (hereinafter, referred to as ISQua*) on 25 Apr. 2012.

* International Society for Quality in Healthcare

As the accreditation survey standards of the domestic medical institution’s accreditation system acquired the international accreditation from ISQua,

It enhances the public confidence and global standing of Korea’s accreditation system and the medical institutions that obtain the concerned accreditation will be seen as providing global level medical service.

ISQua IAP* is the only global program that accredits the accreditation systems and it has been run from 1999 by ISQua and this is the first time for the domestic medical institution accreditation system to receive accreditation from ISQua.  

* International Accreditation Programme

After receiving applications for accreditation in the areas of standards, organizations and survey committee member training programs, ISQua gives the accreditation through evaluation.  

ISQua has given the accreditation to 37 standards of 22 organizations such as US JCI, Australia’s ACHS, Accreditation Canada, and HAS of France, etc as well as 19 organizations and 13 survey committee member training programs as of Apr. 2012.

* JCI(Joint Commission International), ACHS(The Australian Council on Healthcare Standards), HAS(Haute Autorité de Santé)

So far the domestic accreditation system had been thoroughly preparing what were needed to acquire the international accreditation from ISQua through Korea Institute for Healthcare Accreditation, which is an accreditation agency for medical institutions and succeeded in obtaining the international accreditation.

With the application for the area of the accreditation survey standards as a start in Mar. 2011, the revised health care institution accreditation standards were announced in Nov. last year and the self-evaluation report and its backup data were submitted in Dec.  

Additional data requested as a result of the pre-review done by ISQua in Jan. this year was submitted and the final response report was submitted for the interim review result conducted in Mar. With these, all the procedure required to receive the accreditation was completed

ISQua decides whether to give the accreditation or not through a panel and board meeting based upon evidential data submitted and the accreditation for Korea’s accreditation system was approved at the board meeting on 24 Apr.

The accreditation of the domestic health care accreditation survey standards will be effective for four years from 24 Apr. 2012 and Korea Institute of Healthcare Accreditation will receive the final report and the accreditation with two weeks from ISQua.

Health care policy official Kim, Won Jong said that “the accreditation of Korea’s health care institution accreditation standards by ISQua proves that the accreditation that guarantees stability of medical service provided by Korea’s medical institutions is in line with the international standards and we hope this accreditation this time will also help Korea’s health care institutions attract patients from overseas.”