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Start with your clinical governance framework. Dr Sue Sinni, RN, RM shared her insights and useful tools in preparing for and assessing short-notice accreditation. 

Health and social care standards have been widely adopted as a quality improvement intervention. Standards are typically made up of evidence-based statements that describe high-quality care as an outcome or process of care delivery. They involve stakeholders at multiple levels and multiple activities across diverse services. It’s not difficult to see why many problems challenge effective implementation. Getting people on board is hard. Staff see standards as ‘extra work’. Quality managers and clinicians may be at odds, both with different agendas. Line managers may see accreditation as the quality manager’s job, rather than as part of their responsibility for meeting standards of care. Everyone may be doing their best, but there are many barriers to success.

There are many documented benefits of accreditation. These include driving the establishment of organisational structures and processes, promotion of a quality and safety culture, and improvement in care.  Organisational benefits in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, and integration of health services, innovation, support for evidence-based decision-making, and increased stakeholder engagement, have also been discussed in the literature.