Benefits and challenges of the same accreditation standards for all types of hospitals: a qualitative study

Introduction: Hospital accreditation globally is conducted through two different approaches: employing specific standards for various types of hospitals, or applying the same standards across all hospital types, as seen in Iran and many other countries.This study explored the benefits and challenges of using the same standards for all types of hospitals from the perspective of accreditation experts.Methods: This qualitative descriptive study was conducted with the participation of 30 employees of the target hospitals, national accreditation assessors, and experts from the Ministry of Health's monitoring and accreditation office.The interviews were semistructured and conducted during individual sessions.The data was analyzed using content analysis using MaxQDA software.Results: The benefits of the same standards were emereged in three themes ("competitive", "functional", and "financial"), and the challenges were also emereged in three themes ("challenges related to the nature of the hospital", "challenges related to the accreditation process", and "financial challenges")."The motivation to compete with other hospitals" and "not paying enough attention to the specific conditions of each hospital" were the most frequent mentioned benefits and challenges, respectively.The "financial" theme was emerged as both benefits and challenges, albeit with different sub-themes. Conclusion:To optimize accreditation as much as possible, in addition to the existing standards, accreditation organizations should move towards developing and adding specific standards according to the type of hospitals in order to reduce the challenges of accreditation in addition to maintaining the existing benefits.