Association between Patient Outcomes and Joint Commission International (JCI) Accreditation in Italy: An Observational Study

Quality in healthcare is a constantly debated topic and has not found a clear definition to date. If we consider the possible quality standards related to health services, the Joint Commission identifies the main criteria that health organizations must respect in order to guarantee patient safety. The Joint Commission International – founded in 1994 by the JC – also accredits organizations in countries other than the USA and Canada to ensure better minimum quality levels. The study investigates the possibility of obtaining a better outcomes of the health structures accredited in Italy by the Joint Commission International compared to the other the other health organizations of the Italian system considering the mortality index as an indicator recognized by the literature as a summary indicator of outcome. The National Outcome Program (PNE) created by the Italian Ministry of Health allows comparative effectiveness researches based on relative risk. This study performs the analysis based on the results of the past three years available and on the volume of activities provided. Given a p-value significance index <0.05, the analysis highlights the absence of a significant difference between accredited and non-accredited structures. The study contributes to the literature on health system outcomes and performance and has relevance considering researches in health tourism and health mobility policies fields.