Standard Requirements for Smoke-Free Hospital 2023 versus Program and Disease Specific Standard 2020: Differences and Similarities

Abstract

In 2023, Thailand started collaborating to upgrade the smoke-free hospital standard to the program and disease specific standard (PDSS). A comparative study of the similarities and differences in these two standard requirements would be beneficial to hospitals planning to apply for the PDSS certification particularly nicotine addiction. This study compared the differences between the two standards in 3 areas: 1) application documents, 2) number and details of requirements, and 3) scoring for decision-making. The study found that 1) the documents requesting for the PDSS certification were higher in both number and items within the documents. 2) The number of requirements for the two standards were consistent but differed in detail. Smoke-free hospital standard was specific to the process and outcome of smoking cessation, but the PDSS focused on patient care process and key hospital system of interdisciplinary teamwork. 3) Both standards employed the same 1–5-point scoring guideline. The smoke-free hospital standard calculated scores of 1-7 criteria separated from criterion 8 and weighting for the overall scores without specified passing minimum score. The PDSS required part III-patient care process scores of higher than 3.0. For PDSS certification, hospitals should start from 1) establishing a multidisciplinary team, 2) creating an action plan for accreditation, 3) setting performance indicators and targets, to 4) promoting continuity quality improvement. For new hospitals, it may take at least 3 years to see results and care process improvements.