DNV has applied to the US Government for deeming authority for the NIAHO hospital accreditation program to determine hospitals in compliance with the Medicare Conditions of Participation. The NIAHO hospital accreditation program is also applied globally to hospitals who seek improvement and recognition.

Purpose

DNV’s NIAHO^SM (the National Integrated Accreditation for Healthcare Organizations) hospital accreditation programme provides hospitals, who seek accreditation, with a complete survey process that combines accreditation to the Medicare's Hospital Conditions of Participation with ISO 9001 certification, the universally accepted international standard for a quality management system. The result is a fresh, new approach helping hospitals to improve patient care and safety in an economical manner.

NIAHO^SM is the first Integrated Accreditation^SM programme for hospitals in the United States. The programme was developed by DNV as an alternative to current accreditation paths.

Benefits

To improve healthcare, modern healthcare institutions and hospitals need to implement a programme that adheres to the international recognised ISO 9001 management system standard. Healthcare organisations that are ISO 9001 certified can dramatically improve their management system, resulting in improved patient safety and operational performance. DNV’s NIAHO^SM programme is the first to provide a hospital accreditation programme utilizing the ISO 9001 certification.

Features

There are more than 6,000 hospitals in the United States and approximately 40% of all patient claims are derived from governmental reimbursement. The organisation overseeing these reimbursements is the Department of Health and Human Services, Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

In order to receive Medicare reimbursement, a hospital must be accredited by a national accreditation organisation approved by CMS or pass a survey through the State Survey programme. CMS has so far approved two private organisations to accredit hospitals.

Neither of these two private accreditation organisations or the State Survey programme utilizes the international ISO 9001 quality management system standard as part of the accreditation process.

DNV is in the process of applying to CMS to be granted deeming authority as a national accreditation organisation. Approval by CMS will make DNV the first private alternative to hospital accreditation in the last 40 years.

Hospitals currently participating in the NIAHO^SM programme have recognised the benefit of ISO Certification in addition to maintaining the CMS approvals necessary to receive Medicare reimbursement.