Healthcare accreditation is a major player in the United States for ensuring quality, safety, and consistency across the healthcare system. For any healthcare provider whether a hospital or medical association, accreditation is not only tied to regulatory compliance but also patient trust.
For many companies, accreditation can feel like an overwhelming burden. Constantly evolving standards, paperwork, educational requirements and working with your learners to ensure everyone is compliant.
This guide explains what healthcare accreditation is, who oversees it, what it typically requires, and how organizations prepare, with particular attention to the role of education, credentialing, and continuing professional development.
Healthcare accreditation, like any accreditation, if the official review of the to assess if the healthcare organization is meeting the required standards set by the accreditation body. These can vary widely depending on what type of accreditation the organization is looking for.
Accreditation is generally:
For many providers, accreditation supports:
Critically, accreditation is not just a one time process but must reflect the healthcare organizations commitment to maintaining the compliance.
Several nationally recognized organizations oversee healthcare accreditation in the United States. Each focus on different care settings, provider types, or operational standards.
Common accrediting bodies include:
Every accreditation body has its own set of rules, procedures, reviews, and renewal timelines. Each healthcare organization can choose which accreditation to apply for.
In healthcare, accreditation and credentialing are closely related, but they are not the same.
Knowing the difference is critical for an organization to know what departments to allocate their resources.
Accreditation applies to organizations and programs. It evaluates whether healthcare entities meet defined standards related to quality, safety, governance, and operations.
Accreditation answers the question:
“Does this organization or program meet required standards?”
Credentialing applies the individual doctor, nurse or employee. It ensures they are up to date in their licensure including their continuing education.
Credentialing answers the question:
“Is this professional qualified, licensed, and up to date?”
This is where continuing education (CE) and continuing medical education (CME) requirements play a critical role and where education teams are often deeply involved.
Most healthcare organizations must support both accreditation and credentialing simultaneously.
In addition to organizational accreditation, many healthcare providers must align with nationally recognized credentialing and continuing education bodies.
ACCME is the main body that accredits organizations or associations who provide continuing medical education (CME/CE) for physicians and healthcare teams.
ACCME standards emphasize:
Groups that offer CME must show reliable systems for tracking, reporting, and maintaining compliance with ACCME requirements.
ANCC oversees accreditation for continuing nursing education (CNE) providers and credentialing programs.
ANCC-accredited organizations are expected to:
Depending on the care setting and audience, organizations may also support education aligned with:
For multidisciplinary healthcare organizations, managing education across professions adds significant operational complexity.
While every accrediting body has their own requirements, there are still some commonalities.
Organizations must demonstrate that clinical and operational processes are:
Nearly all accreditation standards include requirements related to:
Accreditation bodies expect organizations to:
Surveyors often request proof and not just states that include:
Although an initial accreditation is time and labor intensive, it does not end there. There is ongoing compliance that must be met.
Organizations must maintain:
This can be especially challenging for large, distributed, or fast-growing healthcare organizations.
Sustainable success depends on repeatable systems, not last-minute preparation.
Education sits at the intersection of accreditation and credentialing.
Organizations are expected to demonstrate that:
As requirements grow more complex, manual tracking methods often become unsustainable.
To manage education at scale, which includes tracking every learner’s activities and CME/CE completions a healthcare organization typically uses an LMS.
A learning management system (LMS) can help organizations:
Platforms like OasisLMS are designed to support regulated learning environments, including continuing education, compliance training, integration with ACCME PARS and accreditation-related education workflows.
The best healthcare organizations don’t view accreditation as a chore. Instead, they view it as a framework to continuously improve health outcomes. For example, they use it for:
By aligning the requirements set by the accreditation board, high quality education, and the right technology ecosystem, healthcare organizations can ensure they are always ready to be audited.
Healthcare accreditation is complex and can be scary. However, if you have the right team and systems in place it can become more manageable.
By understanding:
Healthcare organizations can approach accreditation with greater confidence and long-term success.
Whether managing CME for physicians or supporting member growth, Oasis LMS helps deliver high-impact education efficiently and at scale.
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