The accreditation status of Martin Luther King-Drew Medical Center was threatened by the commission in charge on the assessment on the quality and safety of care at hospitals (Herrera, 2004). This was due to the number of times that the said hospital failed to comply with the rules by the commission to improve health care many times after numerous inspections. This status has affected most of the hospital 's operation and resulted to a number of serious problems.
Accreditation and Certification
Accreditation improves quality in two ways. The first involves establishing practice guidelines, performance standards, and expected outcomes for key clinical, financial, and service areas (Neuman and Ptak, 2003). The second method involves making the accreditation results publicly available on "report cards." Report cards facilitate comparison shopping among consumers and purchasers of plans.
Accreditation Standards
More than 60 standards are examined in on- and off-site reviews during the accreditation process. The original accreditation standards were written for medical health care services, but in 1996 separate standards for managed behavioral health organizations (MBHOs) were developed.
An accreditation score is predominately determined by reviewing the organization 's performance in six categories:
1. quality management and improvement in clinical outcomes
2. member rights and responsibilities
3. utilization standards, including decision-making standards and clinical protocols
4. preventive health interventions
5. credentialing and recredentialing
6. medical records
The remaining portion of the score is determined by reviewing the organization 's performance on a set of nationally standardized clinical and financial outcomes (Neuman and Ptak, 2003). NCQA presents the results on a "report card" called the Health Plan Employer Data and Information Set (HEDIS). More than 50 measures are
Bibliography: Herrera, K. 2004. King-Drew May Lose Its Accreditation. Wave Newspaper Imrey, P. 1994. Statistical Values, Quality and Certification. The American Statistician: The American Statistical Association, Vol. 48: 2, pp. 65 Neuman, K. and Ptak, M. 2003. Managing Managed Care through Accreditation Standards. Social work: National Association of Social Workers, Vol. 48: 3, pp. 384