What is accreditation?
Accreditation is the external evaluation process Northern Health (NH) participates in to assess and improve the everyday services for our patients/clients. NH works with Accreditation Canada, an independent outside organization, to ensure we are meeting specific standards of quality and safety. The accreditation process helps us to identify opportunities for quality improvement and work together with NH sites to meet national and organizational standards and our strategic priorities, ensuring the best possible health care for Northerners. The accreditation process helps build trust among our patients and partners, and assures our commitment to excellence.
How does accreditation work?
Accreditation Canada is the external reviewer BC (including NH) contracts with and is a major national accrediting body for organizations across all health sectors in Canada.
Accreditation is a collaborative process that draws on work from NH staff and medical staff throughout the organization. Led by the Safe Quality Care team, and thanks to the efforts of multiple sites, staff, and portfolios, the complex work of evaluation gets done, and the many improvement projects that arise from the findings are identified, resourced, spread, and become standard work.
How can I tell if a facility is accredited?
The Accreditation Canada seal is proudly displayed in Northern Health facilities. This means we are working hard every day to deliver safe, quality care, and to meet Accreditation Canada standards. A commitment to quality and continuous improvement means better health outcomes for all.
Northern Health was awarded an Accredited status from the June 2023 assessment, and we are currently engaged in follow-up from the 2024 survey. The accreditation process is a four-year cycle, with a new status to be awarded in 2026. Right now, we are engaged in the long-term care service survey.
- 2023: Governance, leadership, and emergency and disaster management
- 2024: Acute care services
- 2025: Long-term care services
- 2026: Primary and community care and population health services
Current accreditation results
Northern Health maintained ‘Accredited’ status following the onsite survey by Accreditation Canada in June 2023. Surveyors visited 9 sites, and engaged with staff, medical staff, clients, and community partners. It is a significant accomplishment: Northern Health teams met 99.5% of the over 480 criteria assessed.
What follows is a snapshot of the last Accreditation cycle results by Quality Dimension; these dimensions are the basis of the standards and each criterion in the standard is tied to a dimension. Reviewing all dimensions will give you an overall picture of what high quality health care program or service is like.
| Quality Dimension | Prior cycle | Prior cycle | Percentage of criteria met current cycle 2023-2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Percentage of criteria met 2018 | Percentage of criteria met 2022 | Percentage of criteria met 2023 | |
| Areas assessed | 2018 - Governance, Leadership, Acute Care Services, Long-Term Care Services over 22 service locations | 2022 - Primary and Community Care and Population and Public Health over 20 service locations | 2023 - Governance, leadership, and emergency and disaster management, infection prevention and control and medication management over 9 locations |
| Accessibility (give me timely and equitable services) | 95% | 98% | 100% |
| Appropriateness (do the right thing to achieve the best results) | 94% | 91% | 99% |
| Client Centered Services (partner with me and my family in our care) | 96% | 98% | 100% |
| Continuity of Services (coordinate my care across the continuum) | 97% | 98% | 100% |
| Efficiency (make the best use of resources) | 90% | 89% | 100% |
| Population Focus (work with my community to anticipate and meet our needs) | 100% | 93% | 100% |
| Safety (keep me safe) | 93% | 92% | 99% |
| Work life (take care of those who take care of me) | 94% | 92% | 100% |
Areas of excellence identified by onsite surveyors in the 2022 and 2023 assessments include:
- Commitment to innovation and collaborative partnerships.
- Our response and preparation for emergency responses.
- Well integrated teams concentrating on access to care with services focused on a client-centered practice promoting health and wellness.
- Strong interdisciplinary teams who are compassionate and dedicated to the care of clients and families.
- Robust community and First Nations engagement, relationships, and partnerships.
- Commitment to supporting staff with professional development and recognition.
- Quality improvement initiatives at the regional level with an organizational scorecard.
- COVID 19 response: Testing, immunization, & outbreak containment.
Areas of improvement identified in the 2022 and 2023 assessments include:
- Continue to embed a person family centered approach to services across the organization. This includes seeking client, family, and community input in services to strengthen programs and services.
- Access to services for clients and addressing health human resourcing impacting services.
- Transition of clients between Northern Health communities and sharing of information.
- Consistently apply the required organization practices.
The opportunities identified as part of the 2022 onsite survey have been internally reviewed by leadership and teams, and plans have been put in place to address any follow-up as part of the required progress report to Accreditation Canada. Teams across Northern Health complete audits and checklists, in an ongoing process and work together to identify and accomplish local improvements.
Broader quality improvement activities are underway across the health authority to make system improvements to suicide prevention, to improve information transfer as clients move between facilities and communities, and in continued efforts to appropriately staff and support our sites.
In June 2025 we welcome three surveyors as part of the long-term care onsite survey, and as part of our ongoing accreditation efforts. We are committed to learning from and sharing the accreditation survey results and to ongoing participation in the accreditation process in pursuit of high quality, safe care for Northerners.
Northern Health accreditation summaries
- 2023 Northern Health accreditation report (PDF)
- 2022 Northern Health accreditation executive summary (PDF)
- 2018 Northern Health accreditation executive summary (PDF)
- 2014 Northern Health accreditation executive summary (PDF)
Additional resources
- Diagnostic imaging – College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC (CPSBC)
- Laboratory medicine – College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC (CPSBC)