OTTAWA, March 17 /CNW/ - The Board of Accreditation Canada has approved new Independent Medical/Surgical Facilities Standards. These newly released standards were developed to meet the quality and safety needs of non-hospital surgical facilities across Canada. They will ensure uniformity and standardization in an effort to contribute to assisting the health care providers within these facilities to provide safe, high-quality services to their clients.
The standards were developed as a result of requests from care providers in this area, feedback from governments, comments from stakeholders, and extensive research and testing. The development and refinement of the standards was supported by a wide range of expertise specific to the needs and experience of the sector.
"It's important to recognize that certain medical and surgical procedures which many Canadians are receiving are provided in a new health care environment," says Wendy Nicklin, President and CEO of Accreditation Canada. "When it comes to invasive or operative procedures, the same rigour and focus on quality and safety we apply to hospitals and clinics should be applied to independent facilities. These new standards will allow the health care providers within these facilities to assess their services against national, evidence-based standards of excellence, which will contribute to ensuring that they are providing safe, high-quality services to their clients."
The standards will be used in non-hospital facilities where invasive or operative procedures, such as plastic surgery, are performed. Given the various kinds of surgery offered by these facilities, the standards take into account the different levels of sedation used and the types of surgical procedures.
A national advisory committee of experts from the field guided the development of the standards. The standards were piloted in a number of organizations of varying sizes, services offered, locations, and languages, to reflect the wide range of facilities across Canada.
Accreditation Canada (www.accreditation.ca) is a not-for-profit, independent organization that provides health services organizations with a rigorous and comprehensive accreditation process. We foster ongoing quality improvement based on evidence-based standards and external peer review. Accredited by the International Society for Quality in Health Care, Accreditation Canada has helped organizations strive for excellence for more than 50 years.
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