Accreditation Canada’s Qmentum Program
Health care accreditation, through Accreditation Canada’s Qmentum program (“Quality and Momentum”) is an ongoing process of assessing health care services against national standards. The goal is to celebrate what is being done well and identify what needs to be improved. The Qmentum program is designed to focus on quality and safety throughout all aspects of an organization’s services, from governance and leadership to direct care and infrastructure for the benefit of patients, residents, staff, physicians and volunteers.
Quality Framework
Accreditation Canada evaluates services using the below quality framework. The framework is made up of eight dimensions based on extensive research and expert advice and ensures each standard has a focus on quality. You will see these dimensions when you review the standards, which are meant to help identify the focus of each criterion.
| Accreditation Canada quality framework | |
|---|---|
| Dimension | Tag line |
| Safety | Keep me safe |
| Client-centered services | Partner with me and my family in our care |
| Worklife | Take care of those who take care of me |
| Efficiency | Make the best use of resources |
| Appropriateness | Do the right thing to achieve the best results |
| Accessibility | Give me timely and equitable access |
| Population focus | Work with my community to anticipate and meet our needs |
| Continuity | Coordinate my care across the continuum |
Standards of Excellence
Qmentum standards are evidence-based criteria that help raise the bar for improving quality of care in a health care setting. They include four system-wide standards which apply across the organization (i.e. leadership), service excellence standards which apply to specific services and programs (i.e. cancer care), and required organizational practices (ROPs) which are embedded in the standards and apply to all sites and programs.
