Policy Changes in Accreditation

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Please see response attached, as well as presented below.

RESPONSE:

1. The Institutional Policy Review Team has asked you to prepare an employee training session on current regulations in licensure, accreditation, and certification for health care organizations. Briefly review the policy-making process.

The policymaking process is an interesting one. Policy-making can be viewed as involving the 'authoritative allocation of
values' [28], and when interpreted broadly can include people making the policy as government ministers and officials, as local health service managers, or as representatives of a professional body. Policy-making involves those in positions of authority making choices that have a special status within the group to which they will apply. The results take many forms ranging from national health policies made by the government to clinical guidelines determined by professional bodies. http://www.health-policy-systems.com/content/1/1/2 Please see extra reading section below for models of policymaking.

In general, however, the policy-making process includes agenda setting, policy formulation, implementation, and modification stages.

1. Agenda Setting

In this scenario, the issue that you want on the agenda is: you want to make changes in accreditation, so you would need to find a way to inform people of the importance of the issue and perhaps would also want to gain National attention, as well. How would you use the policymaking process? In health care policy making, agenda setting is the first stage (Ferguson, n.d. from http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1527336903800028).

In some institutions, the policymaker sets the agenda. In other more public policy making, it is about informing enough people to express the importance of the issue so it will get on the policy making agenda e.g., organize a conference or meeting to set an agenda for policy changes in accreditation (see an example: although concerned about a different issue, it illustrates the agenda making process at http://www.nrharural.org/opporty/sub/confreport.html).

Next, your health issue (e.g., accreditation) needs to grasp institutional and health care experts attention, and perhaps national attention as well. For health aspects to be introduced in policies, the critical health issue(s) must first be recognized by health experts or advocates, with lay input where possible, and the determinants of such health challenges defined. Then, for some health issues, national interest must be tapped. To inform health experts or advocates, you might organize an agenda setting meeting or conference, experts in the field would be invited to the conference to express the need to policy changes in accreditation. The following quote is about a different health issue, but a similar process would be necessary for your issue:

"The National Rural Health Research Agenda Setting Conference was by invitation only. The Planning Committee developed invitation lists for each category of attendees desired (research, policy and practice). The ...