Hospital accreditation--a universal perspective.

Hospital accreditation is professional and national recognition reserved for hospitals that provide high-quality health care. From the United States to the United Kingdom, many countries have introduced a hospital accreditation programme for the purpose of assuring high-quality health services. The standards used in accreditation programmes previously focused on structural evaluation, but recently attention is being turned to outcome evaluation. Initially discussing the international experiences of accreditation programmes, the author goes on to examine Korea and its Government's plans to implement a new accreditation programme in the near future, which will constitute an important part of the governmental healthcare reform plan.