Thousand Oaks Surgical Hospital recently announced that it has achieved full accreditation from DNV Healthcare using a program that integrates the Medicare Conditions of Participation with ISO 9001 quality standards.

“The DNV accreditation program provides us the opportunity to simultaneously satisfy our Medicare accreditation requirements and implement the ISO standards all at the same time,” said Robert Shaw, hospital CEO.

DNV Accreditation is based on the National Integrated Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations standards that encourage collaboration between different hospital departments.

Thousand Oaks Surgical Hospital had been accredited previously by another CMS-approved program.

“We feel that by moving to DNV we are taking our organization to an all new level,” said Shaw.

“The DNV accreditation and ISO 9001 processes are very demanding, but the experience is actually less stressful on our staff because we are constantly improving and find ourselves in a higher state of readiness for the accreditation survey,” he said.

ISO 9001:2008 is recognized by businesses around the world as the benchmark for continual quality improvement.

“The DNV surveyors were very professional and provided us good information about ways to improve services to our patients. They were exacting in their review of our work flows but very open to discussion and happy to share ideas about how other hospitals solve problems similar to ours,” Shaw said.

DNV surveyors will visit the hospital on regular annual intervals to monitor the organization’s progress in implementing the new requirements.

Thousand Oaks Surgical Hospital is at 401 E. Rolling Oaks Drive.

For more information, visit www.TOSHospital.com.