QUALITY ASSURANCE PROGRAMS THROUGH HOSPITAL ACCREDITATION IN LATIN-AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

The majority of the approximately 14 000 hospitals in Latin America and the Caribbean face enormous challenges to live up to the basic prepositions of quality assurance in health care. If methods of quality control in medical education and hospitals are not implemented soon in Latin America, we will face, in the very near future, the same situation that has marred the quality of medical care in the U.S. This could turn our health care environment in Latin America into a controversial reality, just as vulnerable to malpractice lawsuits. This situation should be avoided at all costs, before the current absence of quality control favors financial external forces over the implementation of self-assessment methods or external control by accreditation commissions. The following conditions are needed for the effective development of quality assurance programs; a) professional thechnical skills; b) efficient use of resources; c) reduction to a minimum of lesions derived from services; d) patient satisfaction in his requirements, expectations and accessibility to health services, and e) local health systems, where comprehensive outpatient and inpatient services are provided.