Jan 19, 2023
Upper Allegheny Health System (UAHS,) parent company of Olean General Hospital (OGH) and Bradford Regional Medical Center (BRMC,) announced Wednesday the successful completion of its new accreditation process has been awarded by DNV Healthcare.
By earning accreditation, OGH and BRMC have demonstrated they meet or exceed patient safety standards (Conditions of Participation) set forth by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. DNV’s accreditation program is the only one to integrate the ISO 9001 Quality Management System with the Medicare Conditions of Participation.
“The DNV program is consistent with our long-term commitment to quality and patient safety,” says Jill Owens, MD, president, OGH, BRMC. “The ability to integrate ISO 9001 quality standards with our clinical and financial processes is a major step forward.”
UAHS has three years from the date of its accreditation to achieve compliance with ISO 9001, the world’s most trusted quality management system used by performance-driven organizations around the world to advance their quality and sustainability objectives.
“We have taken an entirely different approach to accreditation, and hospitals are really responding,” says DNV Healthcare USA Inc. President Kelly Proctor. “Since accreditation is a must-have credential for just about every hospital in this country, why not make it more valuable, and get more out of it? That’s where ISO 9001 comes into play and turns the typical get-your-ticket-punched accreditation exercise into a quality transformation.”
DNV’s accreditation program, called NIAHO (Integrated Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations,) involves annual hospital surveys — instead of every three years — and encourages hospitals to openly share information across departments and to discover improvements in clinical workflows and safety protocols.