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Egyptian Hospital Accreditation Program: Standards

The Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population (MOHP) with the assistance of the USAID-funded Partnerships for Health Reform Project (1995–2001) successfully developed and implemented an accreditation program for their primary health centers. Building on this experience, the MOHP Quality Improvement Directorate drafted a set of standards for hospital accreditation. The standards then were refined with the collaboration of government/public sector hospitals, university hospitals, teaching hospitals, and private hospitals. The USAID-funded Partners for Health Reformplus Project provided technical assistance to this current version of the hospital accreditation standards. The standards are specific for Egypt, in that they comply with Egyptian laws, regulations, and culture, but they also meet the basic intent of international standards. A total of 709 standards were developed and agreed on, and are categorized into three types: (69) critical standards, (290) core standards, and (349) non-core standards. To become accredited, a hospital must meet all the critical standards and reach a cumulative score of 85 percent on the core standards. The noncore standards constitute a more ambitious target that hospitals are encouraged to work toward; current accreditation requires hospitals to reach a cumulative score of 40 percent on the non-core standards. The standards are expected to serve as a catalyst for change and improvement in both the culture and practice of health care in Egypt.