Shadi Bani Hani, Director of the Irbid Health Directorate, has verified that 17 health centers within the northern governorate have received international accreditation. The directorate has established a plan to accredit 60% of the centers by the end of the next year. Bani Hani told the Jordan News Agency (Petra) on Tuesday that the directorate is presently providing accreditation training to ten additional health facilities. This is because, if all the requirements are met, each facility must acquire accreditation within six months. According to Bani Hani, at the end of the previous month, the directorate nominated eight more centers to begin receiving accreditation-related training. He added that the directorate has trained 8 health centers on accreditation standards, and work is underway to evaluate them by international supervisory bodies, pointing out that the external committee inspects these centers so that the certificate is awarded to the center that applies the standards, and the committee may re quest re-evaluation and correction of matters in centers that have gaps, in addition to centers that may fail the evaluation. Bani Hani explained that international accreditation applies high and accurate global standards that include meeting 46 criteria as specific requirements for a health center to obtain the certificate, in terms of availability of medicines, matching employees to job titles, building maintenance, sterilization, and availability of medical specialties with the aim of achieving the highest quality medical and technical service. Source: Jordan News Agency