South Georgia Medical Center health officials are thrilled to announce the successful completion of a new accreditation process at its hospital campuses in Lowndes, Lanier, and Berrien counties, as well as the Stroke Program at main campus. The system is now accredited by DNV's accreditation program, Integrated Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, also called NIAHO^®.

By earning accreditation, SGMC has demonstrated that it meets or exceeds patient safety standards set forth by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.  

NIAHO^® involves annual hospital surveys – instead of every three years – and encourages hospitals to openly share information across departments and to discover improvements in clinical workflows and safety protocols.    

DNV’s accreditation program is the only one to integrate the ISO 9001 Quality Management System with the Medicare Conditions of Participation. ISO 9001 relies on systematic, repeatable, and well-deployed practices that ensure safe patient care. It is the most widely-accepted quality management system in use around the world and provides a strong foundation for hospital quality, patient safety, and high-reliability programs.     

“The DNV program is consistent with our long-term commitment to quality, patient safety, and high reliability,” says SGMC President and Chief Executive Officer Ronald E. Dean. “The ability to integrate ISO 9001 quality standards with our clinical processes is a major step forward in our high-reliability organization journey.”     

SGMC anticipates achieving compliance with ISO 9001 within 3-years of accreditation. This is the world’s most trusted quality management system used by performance-driven organizations around the world to advance their quality and sustainability objectives.     

“We have taken an entirely different approach to accreditation, and hospitals are really responding,” says DNV Healthcare USA Inc. President Kelly Proctor. “Since accreditation is a must-have credential for just about every hospital in this country, why not make it more valuable, and get more out of it? That’s where ISO 9001 comes into play and turns the typical get-your-ticket-punched accreditation exercise into a quality transformation.”  

For more information, visit sgmc.org.