Union General Hospital has successfully completed the accreditation process from DNV GL – Healthcare, for the third time!
By earning accreditation, Union General Hospital has demonstrated it meets or exceeds patient safety standards (Conditions of Participation) set forth by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. DNV GL’s accreditation program is the only one to integrate the ISO 9001 Quality Management System with the Medicare Conditions of Participation.
“The DNV GL program is consistent with our long-term commitment to quality and patient safety,” says Union General Health System CEO Kevin Bierschenk. “The ability to integrate ISO 9001 quality standards with our clinical and financial processes is a major step forward.”
Union General Hospital has three years from the date of its accreditation to achieve compliance with ISO 9001, the world’s most trusted quality management system used by performance-driven organizations around the world to advance their quality and sustainability objectives.
“We have taken an entirely different approach to accreditation, and hospitals are really responding,” says DNV GL – Healthcare CEO Patrick Horine. “Since accreditation is a must-have credential for just about every hospital in this country, why not make it more valuable, and get more out of it? That’s where ISO 9001 comes into play, and turns the typical get-your-ticket-punched accreditation exercise into a quality transformation.”
DNV GL’s accreditation program, called NIAHO® (Integrated Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations), involves annual hospital surveys – instead of every three years – and encourages hospitals to openly share information across departments and to discover improvements in clinical workflows and safety protocols.
About DNV GL – Healthcare
DNV GL is a world-leading certification body. We help businesses assure the performance of their organizations, products, people, facilities and supply chains through certification, verification, assessment, and training services.
Within healthcare, we help our customers achieve excellence by improving quality and patient safety through hospital accreditation, managing infection risk, management system certification and training.
The DNV GL Group operates in more than 100 countries. Our 16,000 professionals are dedicated to helping our customers make the world safer, smarter and greener.
For more information about DNV GL hospital accreditation, visit www.dnvglhealthcare.com.