ABSTRACT
In the last chapter, we discussed International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9000, ISO 13485, and the National Integrated Accreditation for Health Organizations (NIAHO) accreditation process. For the past year, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and several scienti§c partners have been hard at work developing a tool that will o›er an alternative to the current state of a›airs in which U.S. hospitals must §gure out how to juggle and work on nearly 1,500 quality indicators and long lists of requirements from organizations such as the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, the Leapfrog Group, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and other payers. In addition to all these requirements, hospitals must participate in various quality assessment programs. While all are worthy in their intent and speci§city, this ever expanding list of expectations and risks is creating more frustration and confusion than improvement.
