Chapter 10.A.2: Facility Licensure and Accreditation

Here is where hospitals can be compared for quality measures drawn from Medicare data.

For a revealing narrative account of how one hospital went about preparing for a JCAHO inspection, see J.B. Sardis, Pills, Policies, and Patients, 18(5) Health Aff. 156 (Oct. 1999).

One possible result of excess regulation may be to spur the increasing trend, known as "medical tourism," of traveling overseas to receive medical care in foreign countries.  For the latest, see the updates to Chapter 1.B. 

For a thorough analysis of certification through Medicare and its relationship to JCAHO accreditation, see Lisa Sprague, Hospital Oversight in Medicare: Accreditation and Deeming Authority (National Health Policy Forum, Issue Brief. 802, May 2005).