Resumo
The aim of this study is to investigate the core themes of accreditation research. This paper reviews the literature on accreditation in the last four years and compares the findings to a prior research to analyze the evolution of publication over time. The search identified 90 empirical studies examining either the processes or the impacts of accreditation programs. The articles were classified in nine thematic categories, whereas eight were employed by prior studies, one emerged from this review regarding the accreditation program sustainability (n=10). Publications number increased in the last years. The majority of studies were from the United States (n=35) and Australia (n=14). The findings indicate an increasing trend of international collaboration among researches. In the recent literature, the number of studies indicating positive effect of accreditation is higher than prior reviews. The views regarding financial impacts, survey issues and health professionals are less clear.
