The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has submitted a proposal for a new field of technical activity on healthcare administration. As the U.S. member body to ISO, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) invites all interested stakeholders to submit comments on the new proposal by the end of the business day on October 9, 2015.
The proposal was submitted by the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), an ANSI member organization. The proposed work program for the standardization of healthcare administration will include classification, terminology and nomenclature, management practices, and metrics that comprise the "business" operations among healthcare entities. The document explains that standards that directly affect patient care and medical research are outside the scope of this standards effort.
Relevant subject areas include the healthcare supply chain, financial management, patient admission and discharge approaches, human resource management, facilities management, and all other non-clinical support functions for healthcare organizations.
The proposal specifies that establishing healthcare administrative standards will "slow if not reduce the cost of providing healthcare through the widespread adoption of interoperable metrics and practices," among other justifications presented for why work in this field is timely and would benefit the technical community and relevant stakeholders. UTMB emphasizes that the standards development work will complement the efforts of existing ISO technical committees.
The proposal, which includes the full list of justifications and the framework for standards projects, is available here.
Please direct all comments to Steven Cornish, ANSI senior director for international policy ([email protected]), by October 9, 2015.
ANSI has published an explanatory information document outlining the process used to develop U.S. positions on issues and activities under consideration by ISO and IEC. Click here to download the document.