Accreditation and Quality Approach in Operating Theatre Departments: the French Approach

Abstract

Since 1996, French health establishments are subjected to a process of evaluating the quality of care, called “accreditation”. This process was controlled by ANAES, which, after January 1^st 2005 became the Haute Autorité de Santé (HAS). The accreditation is characterized by a dual process of self-assessment and external audit, leading to four levels of accreditation.

In spite of requiring a time-consuming methodology, this approach provides an important means of consolidating the development of the quality approach and re-stimulating the compliance of establishments with standards of safety and vigilance.

The professional teams of many French operating theatre departments have been able to use the regulatory and restricting framework of accreditation to organize quality approaches specific to the operative system, supported by the organizational structures of the department such as the operating suite committee, departmental boards and the steering group. Based on quality guidelines including a commitment from the manager and operating suite committee, as well as a quality flow chart and a quality system, these teams describe the main procedures for running the operating theatre. They also organize the follow-up of incidents and undesirable events, along with the risks and points to watch. Audits of the operative system are planned on a regular basis.

The second version of the accreditation process considerably reinforces the assessment of professional practices by evaluating the relevance, the risks and the methods of managing care for pathologies. It will make it possible to implement assessments of the health care provided by operating theatre departments and will reinforce the importance of search for quality.

Key Words:

• Operating theatre
• accreditation
• certification
• quality approach
• auditing in health care

Additional information

Notes on contributors

M. Soudée

France. Saint-Denis: ANAES; 2004. Marc Soudée consultant expert Iris Conseil Santé 14 rue Magellan-Paris-75008 Tel.: + 33 1 53 57 33 33 E-mail: <marcsoudee à irisconsult.fr> Web-site: www.iris-conseil.com