[HOSPITAL ACCREDITATION - TIME FOR RETHINKING?]

INTRODUCTION: Accreditation provides an incentive to promote processes improving quality and enhancing patient safety, both in hospital and community settings. For the past three decades, many western, as well as developing countries, have adopted this methodology. Israel too has taken this pathway to adopt accreditation in general, geriatric and psychiatric hospitals as part of a national mission. Beyond the benefits to the patient, accreditation has numerous advantages: raising the professional accountability of healthcare providers, defining targets for improvement based on the strategies of the Ministry of Health and specifying standardization of care and regulations. Accreditation guides care-givers to develop insights on the quality and perception of innovation and facilitates trust, workers' coherence and teamwork. Alongside these benefits, thoughts about the future of the process arise: A variety of accreditation programs exists around the world, while several governments implement other incentives for healthcare system improvement- such as quality indices. Moreover, professionals resist this methodology, which may be considered to be over-complex to maintain. Since we have already assimilated concepts, perspectives, knowledge and experience in this challenging process, the outlook for preserving a nationwide hospital-based accreditation in the current format should be re-examined, in order to establish a long-lasting quality mechanism.