The effect of external inspections on safety in acute hospitals in the National Health Service in England: a controlled interrupted time-series analysis.

Castro-Avila A, Bloor K, Thompson C. J Health Serv Res Policy. 2019;24:182-190.

In the United States, unannounced accreditation inspections are deployed extensively to evaluate hospital safety. This interrupted time-series analysis found that enhanced accreditation procedures in the United Kingdom did not improve rates of either pressure ulcers or falls. In a PSNet interview, the president of The Joint Commission discussed how accrediting bodies can help achieve high reliability.

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