Accreditation and External Inspection in Healthcare

External inspection and accreditation are examples of internationally wide-spread external evaluation methods used to assess the quality of care given to patients.

Different countries have different national policy strategies and arrangements set up to do these evaluations. Although there is growing attention to the impact and effects on quality and safety from external evaluation, we still know too little about how structures and processes influence these outcomes.

The aim of this study was to describe the structures and processes in external evaluation designed to promote quality improvement in Norway and the U.S. with attention to enablers and barriers in external evaluation systems.

The case was defined as external evaluation of service provision in healthcare in Norwegian and U.S. based contexts.