IASIS Healthcare achieves DNV accreditation

IASIS Healthcare® LLC today announced the completion of a system-wide initiative to accredit all 16 of its hospitals through DNV Healthcare, the only Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) approved accreditation program that integrates the ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System.

IASIS is the first health system to achieve DNV accreditation across its entire network of hospitals.

“DNV accreditation is strategically aligned with our goals for patient safety and medical outcomes,” says Patty Scott, IASIS vice president of quality, case, risk management and regulatory compliance. “In addition to taking a ‘best practices’ approach to hospital surveys, DNV’s accreditation framework fits well with the Hospital Medical Management and Quality Program (HMMQP) already in place at IASIS hospitals.”

DNV’s NIAHO^SM accreditation standards offer a unique combination of CMS compliance requirements and ISO quality-improvement techniques that together help ensure ongoing excellence within hospitals. Unlike other accreditation programs, DNV conducts annual on-site surveys that focus on cross-departmental collaboration and management innovation.

Yehuda Dror, president of DNV Healthcare, said, “This is a major step in the evolution of hospital accreditation – not just for us, but for all hospitals and health networks looking for better ways to employ required tools like accreditation in game-changing ways. With its reputation for bold leadership and dedication to quality, it is not surprising that IASIS became the first to apply our new accreditation model to its entire system.”

Once a hospital is accredited by DNV, it has three years to achieve full compliance with ISO 9001 standards. As part of the survey process, DNV prepares an ISO 9001 pre-assessment analysis.

“Because of their organizational focus on quality and willingness to document every opportunity for improvement, the IASIS hospitals are well on their way to being fully ISO compliant,” adds Dror. “We find that most hospitals dedicated to quality are doing most of what ISO requires even before the accreditation process begins.”

A key factor in the DNV process is a successful partnership between the accrediting body and the hospital. Instead of merely dictating standard policies and templates that are not the best measurement and reporting tools for all hospitals, DNV guides its hospitals through an improvement process that enables care providers to customize programs that work best for them.

“Having the opportunity to use a variety of available evidence and best practices to determine what is most appropriate for our hospitals is one of the reasons we decided to use DNV as our accrediting body,” said Scott. “As long as we are consistent in executing our plans and successful in achieving our goals, the DNV process allows us to be creative in fitting its standards into our organization.”

As part of its partnership, IASIS served as the first group to go through the newly created ISO 9001 and DNV NIAHO^SM Integration training. The four-day training, which took place at the IASIS corporate office, was geared toward hospital quality directors, but also included various other corporate operations staff and executive leaders.