The “Organização Nacional de Acreditação” in Brazil - in English, National Accreditation Organization (ONA) - is a nongovernmental, nonprofit organization that certifies the quality of health services in Brazil, with a focus on patient safety.
Our methodology is recognized by ISQua (International Society for Quality in Health Care), a World Health Organization (WHO) partner that has representatives from academia and health care organizations in more than 100 countries.
Our goal is to promote a constant process of evaluation and improvement in health services and thus improving the quality of the sector in Brazil.
The ONA was founded in 1999 by public and private entities in the healthcare sector. The stablishment of ONA is associated with the changes that occurred after Brazil's 1988 Constitution, which defined health as a legal right of every citizen.
During the 1990s, health institutions and governments in Latin America began to be strongly concerned with the evaluation of health services offered to their populations. During that period, the first Latin American regional accreditation initiatives were developed: the “Hospital Manual de Acreditação de Hospitais para América Latina e Caribe”, published by the “Federação Brasileira de Hospitais”, “Federação Latino Americana de Hospitais” e “Organização Pan-Americana da Saúde-OPAS” (in English Braziliation Federation of Hospitals, Latin-American Federation of Hospitals and “Pan-American Health Organization, respectively).
ONA’s evaluation methodology was developed from a review of those Latin American regional accreditation models, manuals from other Latin American countries, as well as practices in the United States, Canada, Spain and England. To be used nationally in Brazil, the ONA manual has been tested in health institutions in five regions of Brazil.
Since its inception, the ONA coordinates the "Sistema Brasileiro de Acreditação (SBA)" - in English the Brazilian Accreditation system - which brings together organizations and healthcare services, agencies and accreditation institutions having as their main goals patient safety and healthcare system improvement.
The ONA certifies:
I. Organizations Providers of Health Services
- Hospitals
- Clinics
- Laboratories
- Emergency Care Services
- Home Care
- Hemotherapy services
- Nephrology Services and Renal Replacement Therapy
- Diagnostic Services Imaging, Radiotherapy and Nuclear Medicine