PCAHO

Reynaldo O. Joson, MD, MHA, MHPEd, MS Surg

In the Philippines, the PCAHO or Philippine Council on Accreditation for Healthcare Organization is the body recognized by the Department of Health and PhilHealth in certifying the presence of quality management system in health care organizations. At present, PCAHO is certifying industrial medical clinics and confirmatory drug testing laboratories. Eventually, it will certify hospitals. Quality Standards System (QSS) is presently the terminology used by PCAHO. QSS is similar to Quality Management System of ISO 9000:2000. The difference is that the QSS is very specific to the requirements based on the operations of an industrial medical clinic as compared to a set of generic standards of ISO 9000:2000.

Certification costs about PhP 25 to 30,000. Cost for surveillance is about PhP 10,000 per year. At present, recertification is every 2 years.

PCAHO certification is needed for DOH license and PhilHealth accreditation.