Chapter III: Evaluation, accreditation and analysis of hospital activity.

In order to provide high-quality care, health establishments, whether public or private, are required to have adequate resources and to evaluate their activities.

Public and private healthcare establishments develop a policy of evaluating professional practices, methods of organising care and any action contributing to overall patient care, in order to guarantee quality and efficiency. The French National Authority for Health (HAS) contributes to the development of this evaluation. The evaluation of medical practices must respect the ethical rules and professional independence of practitioners in the exercise of their art.

In order to ensure continuous improvement in the quality and safety of healthcare, all public and private healthcare establishments must undergo an external assessment procedure known as certification. This procedure, carried out by the Haute Autorité de santé (French National Authority for Health), aims to provide an independent assessment of the quality of an institution or, where appropriate, of one or more divisions, internal structures or activities of an institution,…

The certification procedure is initiated by the health care organisation, in particular as part of the contract between it and the Regional Health Agency. The health cooperation groupings mentioned in article L. 6133-7 are also subject to this obligation.

In the absence of a multiannual contract of objectives and resources referred to in article L. 6114-1, the regional health agency shall submit a request to the director of the public health institution or the representative of the private health institution for this procedure to be initiated.

The certification report, which is sent to the health care organisation, is forwarded to the competent regional health agency. The Director of the Haute Autorité de santé provides the Director General of the regional health agency with all quantitative and qualitative information on the certification programmes under way in the region’s health care organisations.

Healthcare establishments, whether public or private, analyse their activity. With due respect for medical confidentiality and patients’ rights, they implement information systems that take account of pathologies and treatment methods in order to improve knowledge and evaluation of activity and costs and to encourage optimisation of the care offered. Practitioners working in public and private health establishments transmit the nominative medical data required to analyse and invoice their activity to…

Healthcare establishments transmit to the regional health agencies, to the State or to the public body it designates and to the health insurance bodies the information relating to their operating resources, their activity, and their health, demographic and social data which are necessary for drawing up and revising the regional health project, for determining their resources, for evaluating the quality of care, for health monitoring and vigilance, and for controlling…

Information relating to the fees of healthcare professionals working in the establishments mentioned in d of article L. 162-22-6 of the Social Security Code is sent to the regional health agencies by the health insurance organisations.

The Agence nationale d’appui à la performance des établissements de santé et médico-sociaux is a public interest group formed by the French government, the Union nationale des caisses d’assurance maladie, the Caisse nationale de solidarité pour l’autonomie and federations representing health and medico-social establishments. The purpose of the agency is to help health and medico-social establishments to improve the service they provide to patients and users, by drawing up and…