Accreditation for sleep centers

Accreditation has become an integral part of doing business in the healthcare setting. Accreditation allows a facility to demonstrate a commitment to quality, patient safety standards and serves as a benchmark. For sleep centers, this has become especially important in the context of reimbursement being tied to obtaining and maintaining their accreditation status. In this article we detail the history of accreditation in healthcare settings, utility and barriers. We discuss accreditation in the specific context of sleep centers with a special emphasis on the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Joint Commission standards for sleep center accreditation. We also discuss the current research examining the utility and value of accreditation in terms of improving patient-related outcomes.