Perception of Health Care Professionals Toward Hospital Accreditation at Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare.

Background and objectives: The quality of health care relies on achieving the best quality and patient safety goals, and accreditation plays a fundamental role in achieving these goals through compliance with standards that guide excellence. Accreditation also helps streamline operations and supports evidence-based quality improvement plans. This study aims to evaluate the perception of health care professionals on the accreditation process and its impact on the quality of health care and patient safety.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional questionnaire survey distributed via the SuccessFactors website and made accessible to all hospital staff.

Results: The online questionnaire was completed by 2047 participants, representing 51% of the entire hospital staff at Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare (JHAH). Overall analysis indicated a positive perception of accreditation benefits among health care employees (as indicated by participation in accreditation activities and/or preparation for the survey visits) and reflected on patient health care quality and safety dimensions, with an overall Likert median score of 4.0 (interquartile range = 3.7-5.0; P < .05).

Conclusion: The outcomes of our study confirm that JHAH employees perceived a positive impact of accreditation on health care quality improvement and patient safety. Also, the study supports considering accreditation as a fundamental requirement to improve health care system processes. However, it is critical to sustain quality of services over time during accreditation cycles.