Regulation and Accreditation Essay -- Health Care, Nursing

Regulatory and accreditation agencies have participated in the nursing community for several years. Regulation in healthcare started as a registry process to protect patients and healthcare givers. Currently, regulation serves the purpose of protecting patients. It also helps in defining healthcare practices and nursing education. In order to understand the function of regulatory and accrediting agencies and practices one must understand their definitions (McWay, 2003). A regulatory agency has the responsibility of creating and enforcing rules or regulations of the law. Accreditation is a voluntary and self-regulatory process that non-governmental associations recognize programs put in place to meet or extend standards of quality healthcare. Accreditation also helps in the improvements of institutions or programs related to the use of resources, application of processes and achievement of results (Lundy & Janes, 2009). There are several regulatory and accreditation standards that exist in the case study. First, preventable measures have been used as a regulatory standard. For instance, professionals have increased malpractice lawsuits after falls. Patients and their families institute these lawsuits to suggest that better care would have prevented the fall and injuries. Malpractice suits serve as a preventive measure. They are used to prevent many patient falls from occurring. The jury awards for the perceived unnecessary complications. The methodological explanation of malpractice suits is that fall prevention is a nursing assessment issue (Miller, 2006). Secondly, healthcare organizations have developed preventive measures used for the prevention of patient falls. For example, healthcare agencies now collect data and use th... ... safety interventions. Therefore, no agency can successfully adopt potential improvements without cost-effectiveness. This calls for applying cost-effective changes before applying regulatory and accreditation standards. In conclusion, this case study shows that regulatory and accreditation standards exist. There are strategies that help in meeting these standards. However, the strategies do not function adequately to ensure that the standards are met because of several gaps that exist in practice. Therefore, regulatory and accreditation agencies should work closely with hospitals and other healthcare agencies, to close those gaps and develop a cost effective and appropriate way of meeting regulatory and accreditation standards. This will help healthcare agencies to provide adequate safety and care, for patients (Folland, Goodman, & Stano, 2007).