Hospital accreditation in Taiwan was started in 1978 by various governmental departments including the Ministry of Education and Department of Health. Taiwan was the fourth country in the world to promote hospital accreditation and the first one in Asia. The Taiwan Joint Commission on Hospital Accreditation and Quality Improvement (TJCHA) , a not-for-profit, nongovernmental organization was established in 1999 under the authorization of Department of Health to conduct hospital accreditation. In recent years, TJCHA has evolved from an organization in charge of hospital accreditation to a major promoter of Taiwan's health care system and quality improvement. In 2006 and 2007, TJCHA passed the rigorous on-site survey and accreditation standards review conducted by the International Society for Quality in Health Care (iSQua) and became the first certified accrediting organization in Asia. Today, approximately 500 hospitals are being accredited regularly in Taiwan (see Figure 1).
展开▼
