Progress with accreditation and standards in the Middle East: the cases of the Jordanian Health Care Accreditation Council and Egyptian General Authority for Healthcare Accreditation and Regulation

Abstract

Accreditation has become a central strategy for regulating and improving quality in health systems worldwide. Evidence suggests accreditation can strengthen governance, standardise processes and build quality improvement capability, although effects on outcomes remain variable and context-dependent. This paper examines two leading Middle Eastern accreditation bodies: the Jordanian Health Care Accreditation Council (HCAC) and Egypt’s General Authority for Healthcare Accreditation and Regulation (GAHAR). Both organisations are accredited by the International Society for Quality in Health Care External Evaluation Association (ISQua EEA), signalling alignment with international benchmarks while adapting standards to local contexts. We describe their origins, mandates, standards portfolios and system roles, and interpret their trajectories in light of recent global syntheses of the accreditation literature. We then outline HCAC’s and GAHAR’s key challenges and strategic opportunities over the next five years, including their evaluation and use of large language models, and the contributions they can make to patient and community engagement, equity, digital health, climate change, and organisational resilience. The experiences of HCAC and GAHAR offer lessons for similarly reforming health systems both in the Middle East, and other regions.