JCAHO Accreditation
In 1997, the Bureau of Primary Health Care (BPHC), a branch of the federal government, rolled out a new program entitled the “Accreditation Initiative” in an effort to encourage community health centers (CHCs) to become more competitive in a changing healthcare environment and develop an ongoing quality improvement foundation. In 2000, North County Health Services received its first official Joint Commission Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) Since that time, NCHS has gone through two additional re-accreditation surveys and continues to be JCAHO accredited. Nationwide, only about 5% of community health centers have become JCAHO accredited, so NCHS is truly part of an elite group of CHCs.
JCAHO provides a number of quality standards that NCHS must integrate into its processes and the JCAHO survey is a way to acknowledge how well the organization has succeeded. Because the emphasis of these standards is patient care, the accreditation program enables JCAHO to provide public acknowledgment of NCHS’ excellence in quality of care. NCHS staff and volunteers are dedicated to providing safe, high-quality care and through the accreditation process JCAHO partners in this vision.