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'DNV Healthcare Inc. is a leading provider of hospital accreditation, infection risk management and standards development. The company was approved in 2008 by the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to accredit acute care hospitals in the United States and since then has also been granted CMS deeming authority for critical access hospitals. DNV has also developed quality-based certifications for medical specialty areas such as Primary Stroke Centers.

In US healthcare-industry parlance, hospital accreditation is the process of reviewing the way hospitals work to determine if they comply with the Conditions of Participation (COPs) set forth by CMS as a prerequisite for reimbursement of Medicare-qualified services. The COPs are a set of criteria created by CMS to help ensure quality and patient safety. Hospitals that do not meet the COPs are not reimbursed for care provided to Medicare patients, which comprises nearly half of all services provided by hospitals in the United States.

The market for US hospital accreditation services is unique; for more than 40 years the Joint Commission held exclusive, statutory authority to accredit hospitals under CMS, creating a virtual monopoly and constraining choice for hospitals. With its background in quality certifications and risk management for complex industries, DNV set its sights on hospital accreditation, investing four years to create a new, modern accreditation program than integrates ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System into the Medicare COPs. This unique program is called NIAHO(R) (National Integrated Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations).

Globally, DNV Healthcare is extending the NIAHO(R) accreditation platform to hospitals seeking to establish consistent, benchmarked standards for quality of care and patient safety. The company is also leveraging its expertise in biorisk to bring new infection management regimes to the world's health systems.

DNV Healthcare is a wholly owned subsidiary of Det Norske Veritas, a global organization with 8600 employees operating in over 100 countries.