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.