This document summarizes an international comparative study of the mission, vision, and values of 24 organizations working in healthcare quality and accreditation. The study found that most organizations described their mission as improving and guaranteeing healthcare quality and patient safety. Over half described their vision as becoming a leader or reference organization. Common values identified included transparency, accountability, integrity, quality improvement, and patient focus.

1. 26th International Conference
The International Society for Quality in Health Care
Dublin 11th - 14th October 2009
INTERNATIONAL COMPARATIVE STUDY ABOUT MISSION, VISION
AND VALUES IN ORGANISATIONS WORKING ON HEALTHCARE QUALITY
Authors: Reyes-Alcázar V., Sotillos-González B., Torres-Olivera A.
Andalusian Agency for Healthcare Quality
1. OBJECTIVE
To analyse the mission, vision and values of an international series of organisation
devoted to healthcare quality and accreditation.
2. METHODS
The Andalusian Agency for Healthcare Quality (Spain) had set as one of
its objectives for 2008 the re-definition of its mission, vision and values
as a regional organisation devoted to healthcare quality and
accreditation. In order to undertake such issues, an exploration study of
the mission, vision and values of similar organisations was planned. The
main stages in the process were:
(1) Selection of 24 organisations working within the field of healthcare
quality and accreditation worldwide:
1. French National Authority for Health (HAS-ANAES). 2. Netherlands
Institute for Accreditation of Hospitals (NIAZ). 3. Health Information
and Quality Authority (HIQA). 4. Regional Health Authority “Ars Marche”.
5. Institute for Healthcare Quality (IQS). 6. Healthcare Accreditation and
Quality Unit (CHKS-HAQU). 7. National Institute for Health and Clinical
Excellence (NHS-NICE). 8. Australian Council on Healthcare Standards
(ACHS). 9. Australian General Practice Accreditation Limited (AGPAL).
10. Quality Improvement Council (QIC). 11. Accreditation Canada. 12.
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). 13. Institute for
Healthcare Improvement (IHI). 14. Joint Commission. 15. National
Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). 16. Quality Health New
Zealand. 17. Technical Institute for Health Services Accreditation
(ITAES). 18. Consortium for Brazilian Accreditation (CBA). 19. Health
Superintendence-Chile. 20. Colombian Institute-Icontec .21. Malaysian
Society for Quality in Healthcare. 22. Council for Health Service
Accreditation of Southern Africa (COHSASA). 23. Taiwan Joint
Commission on Hospital Accreditation. 24. International Journal for
Quality in Healthcare Inc. (ISQua)
(2) Review of the websites of each of these organisations.
(3) Selection of data referring to these organisations’ mission, vision
and values.
(4) Analysis of contents and category sorting.
* Timeframe: the analysis of documents took place between October
2008 and January 2009.
** Analysis of information in the following languages: English, French,
Portuguese and Spanish.
3. RESULTS
4. CONCLUSIONS
(1) With regard to Mission, 21 of the 24 organisations analysed (87.5%)
expound their Mission on their website. The main dimensions of such a
Mission are: (a) Improve and guarantee healthcare quality (95.2%), (b)
Actions about patient safety (38.1%), (c) Accreditation (33.3%) and (d)
Standard assessment and definition (28.6%).
1. Patient safety is an issue of growing importance in the mission of the
(2) 54.1% of the organisations analysed describe their Vision, of which
the most frequent dimensions are as follows: (a) Recognition, to become
a leader or organization of reference (76.9%), (b) Provide added value
(38.5%), (c) Establishment of alliances (15.4%) and (d) Independence
(15.4%).
organisations under analysis.
2. Transparency and accountability are emerging issues in Mission and
Vision.
3. The study has fulfilled its objectives, proving to be a useful tool both
for our organisation, where some of the values identified in the study
have been explicitly adopted (transparency, co-operation) and for other
organisations related to healthcare quality and accreditation.
4. The results indicate a degree of convergence with regard to mission,
vision and values among different organisations working on healthcare
quality and accreditation.
(3) 70.8% of the organisations analysed describe their Values: (a)
Transparency and Accountability (52.9%), (b) Integrity (41.2%), (c)
Quality
and
Continuous
Improvement
(41.2%),
(d)
Patient/Citizen/Customer focussed (41.2%), (e) Co-operation (35.3%)
and (f) Excellence (35.3%).
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