Accreditation focuses on the qualification of the accredited entity with respect to conducting a specific type of professional services; audit focuses on assessing the performance of the audited entity with respect to the common requirements of a society and/or the professional standards of a professional community.
Worldwide, accreditation focuses on promoting continuous improvements, applying standards and providing feedback [ 2].
These audits in the context of accreditation focus more on organisational preconditions and less on the behaviour of healthcare professionals and patient outcomes.
Gu argues that in China there is insufficient knowledge and experience in quality assurance of transnational education, as most existing systems of quality assurance and accreditation focus on the local higher education system [ 3].
According to the Sustainable Furnishings Council (SFC) - a non-profit regulatory organization with an accreditation program focused on manufacturing companies with best practices, "The SFC members are continually working to offer products that are safe for our environment, safe for the health of our customers and safe for the health of our members and their employees.
All in all, in comparison with the old standard, our new teaching hospital accreditation standards focus more on evaluating process and outcome, and are in sync with the overall trend in hospital accreditation.
The Kern framework has undergone revisions to accommodate for the changing environment of medical education in North America, such as accreditation, a focus on core competencies (ACGME, RCPSC) and the growing use of information technology by institutions and learners.
Prior to 1998, medical education accreditation agencies focused their expectations on instructional objectives as a way for medical schools and residency programs to make explicit to trainees and to the public the knowledge, behaviors, and attitudes that the programs intended learners to acquire.
This is characterised as a more holistic accreditation process focused on continuous improvement associated with increasingly stringent standards, insistence on the involvement of consumers in decision-making, and mandating that accredited organisations be seen to embrace the continuum of care [ 14, 26].
Proficiency testing and laboratory accreditation have been focuses of the College of American Pathologists since its inception in 1946.
National accreditation standards are focused on ensuring the quality of nursing programs in terms of public interest and safety.
