Does Accreditation Symbolize Quality in Public Healthcare Delivery? An Investigation of Hospitals in Kerala

Accreditation has become an important benchmark for healthcare organisations, and accordingly, many government hospitals in Kerala got accredited with national level (NABH) and state level (KASH) accreditation programmes. This study examined the quality of public healthcare delivery in these accredited hospitals while having a comparison with the non-accredited hospitals. It also compared the impact of national and state-level accreditation programmes in Kerala public healthcare settings. This cross-sectional study conducted between July 2017 and July 2018, employing a positivist approach using stratified random sampling. In total, 621 samples were collected from in-patients of both accredited (NABH and KASH) (312) and nonaccredited (309) public healthcare institutions in Kerala. Nine constructs overarching the quality of healthcare delivery and patient satisfaction construct are used in the study. The study found that patient satisfaction is identical in both accredited and nonaccredited hospitals (M=4.28). Patient satisfaction in NABH accredited hospital (M=4.27{+/-}0.67874) is lower than that of KASH accredited hospital (M=4.30{+/-}1.25417). The mean score of six constructs of quality healthcare delivery of KASH accredited hospitals is higher than NABH accredited. Thus, the study concluded that accreditation, regardless of its type, has no impact on patient satisfaction even though the accreditation process slightly improved different dimensions of quality healthcare delivery.