Patient Safety and Healthcare Accreditation Subject of NY Times Article

If there's anyone left wondering why URAC has swung so strongly toward patient safety in recent years, this morning's NY Times article, "Weak Patchwork of Oversight Lets Bad Hospitals Stay Open," will clarify things. 

As I point out in this short video, accreditors have sought the role of "surrogate regulators" from state and federal government regulators and purchasers for years.  URAC, for example, cites recognition by about 3 dozen states and several federal agencies as a reason it is a good idea for a healthcare organization to seek accreditation.  NCQA has similarly broad governmental recognition, and the Joint Commission has stood in for Medicare regulators for decades.

With this growth in recognition by government agencies, however, has come a growth in the notion that accreditors are responsible for protecting the public from threats to patient safety.   This focus on patient safety became more intense with the 1999 publication by the Institute of Medicine of "To Err is Human: Building A Safer Health System".  Accreditation organizations, including URAC, have responded by beefing up their oversight of patient safety activities of their accredited organizations.