Article Text
Abstract
Objectives The objective of this research was to develop ethics accreditation standards for hospitals.
Research design Our research methods included a literature review, an expert focus group, the Delphi technique and a hospital survey. The entire process was separated into two stages: (1) the development of a draft of hospital ethics accreditation standards; and (2) conducting a nationwide hospital survey of the proposed standards.
Results This study produced a tentative draft of hospital ethics accreditation standards comprised of six chapters and 62 standards based on the expert focus group and Delphi technique. The six chapters are: Medical ethics policies, regulations and leadership; The establishment and operation of a medical ethics committee; The establishment and operation of research-related ethics committees; Medical ethics education; Organisational ethical climate; and Respect for patients' rights and establishment of good hospital-patient relationships. The hospital survey indicated that the concept of an organisational ethical climate was new to most hospital managers, most hospitals disliked the idea of having a separate hospital ethics accreditation system, and small hospitals were concerned about their ability to comply with all of the standards.
Conclusions Regardless of whether hospital ethics accreditation can be a stand-alone accreditation or just part of existing hospital accreditation programmes, we hope this draft can serve as a good reference for future endeavours by hospital accreditation authorities.
- Medical ethics
- organisational ethics
- ethical climate
- accreditation
- applied and professional ethics
- general
- quality of healthcare
- legal aspects
- interests of health personnel/institutions
- applied and professional ethics
- general
- quality of health care
- legal aspects
- interests of health personnel/institutions
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Footnotes
Funding The authors would like to acknowledge the research grant (DOH96-TD-M-113-047) funded by the Department of Health, Taiwan (ROC).
Competing interests None.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
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