Evidence on hospital accreditation to leverage its prospects for improvement: the case of Saudi Arabia

Evaluating the quality of healthcare services is essential for performance improvements. Accreditation is widely regarded as the most frequently used external evaluation tool for assessing the quality of healthcare services. Accreditation assesses compliance with pre-defined performance standards at the level of the entire healthcare facility, a particular specialty, or even a sub-specialty or disease. The ultimate goal of accreditation is to improve healthcare quality. However, the implementation of accreditation standards is challenged by various financial and non-financial constraints that could jeopardize its long-term sustainability and future relevancy. Hence, this dissertation attempts to understand the impact of hospital accreditation, the factors affecting accreditation implementation, and how healthcare leaders perceive the implementation of accreditation standards. This dissertation provides evidence on hospital accreditation to leverage its prospects for improvement. The lessons gleaned from this dissertation are expected to assist stakeholders in understanding the mechanisms of accreditation, making informed decisions about accreditation, and drawing a road map for how accreditation should appear in the future.