Lebanese hospitals are accredited by the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) against its Accreditation Standards for Hospitals in Lebanon, December 2022 Edition, which replaced the January 2019 Edition. The manual has 18 chapters in three groups, and its COR (Critical Organization Requirements) standards are the minimum a hospital must meet to be accredited.
This guide is for hospital directors, quality coordinators and accreditation teams in Lebanon.
Which edition of the MoPH hospital standards is current?
The current manual is the December 2022 Edition. The Ministry publishes it on its hospital accreditation standards page, the same page that previously carried the January 2019 Edition. We found no later edition on the Ministry's site when we checked in October 2026.
The two editions share the same chapter structure. The main change the Ministry names is new "intent" sections for each standard, written to help hospitals understand what each requirement is for. If your documents were built against the 2019 manual, review them against the 2022 text rather than starting again.
The manual also explains where the programme comes from. The Ministry introduced hospital accreditation in phases from 2000, under a law of 22 June 1962 as amended by Legislative Decree 139 of 16 September 1983.
Who runs hospital accreditation in Lebanon?
The Ministry of Public Health owns the programme. Governance sits with two committees: the Comité National d'Accréditation Hospitalière (CNAH) and the Comité Technique d'Accréditation Hospitalière (CTAH). A unit inside the Ministry, the Bureau d'Accréditation et d'Evaluation (BAE), runs the work day to day.
The 2022 revision was carried out under a cooperation agreement with the French Haute Autorité de Santé (HAS), signed in January 2022 with support from the Agence Française de Développement (AFD). The Ecole Supérieure des Affaires (ESA) in Beirut acted as the local counterpart.
In 2023 the Ministry announced that the 2022 Edition had received an award from the ISQua External Evaluation Association, the international body that assesses health care standards. The same Ministry announcement reported 44 trained surveyors and more than 500 hospital staff in training.
How is the December 2022 manual organised?
The 18 chapters fall into three groups. Hospital management covers Governance and Leadership (GL), Human Capital (HC), Information Management (IM) and Facility Management and Safety (FMS). Quality and risk management covers Medication Management and Safety (MM), Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) and Quality Management and Patient Safety (QMPS).
Patient-centred care covers Access and Continuity of Care (ACC) and Patient and Family Rights and Education (PFR). It also holds nine patient services chapters. They cover anaesthesia and surgical care, oncology, medical imaging, emergency, obstetrics and child health, critical care, laboratory, and blood bank and transfusion. A final chapter covers other services such as burn care, dietary, social care, physiotherapy and mental health.
Each standard carries a numerical risk score and a set of guiding measures. The manual is clear that the guiding measures are what apply. The intents only explain the reasoning behind them.
What are COR standards?
COR standards are the ones a hospital must meet to be accredited at all. The manual describes them as essential to patient safety. They include the international patient safety goals and were chosen by scoring the likelihood and consequence of each risk.
They are spread across chapters rather than grouped in one place. Examples include medication reconciliation (MM 13), correct-site and correct-patient surgery with a time-out (ASC 11) and patient identification (QMPS 11), which the manual links to the first international patient safety goal.
In practice, list every standard marked COR in the chapters that apply to you and check those first. The other standards still count, but a hospital that misses a COR standard falls below the minimum the manual sets for accreditation.
What evidence will surveyors look for in each chapter?
Surveyors test whether each guiding measure is met in practice, not only written in a policy. Several measures set a frequency, so the records have to exist over time.
In our reading of the manual, GL 1 asks for the governing body's performance to be reviewed at least every two years. HC 19 sets a minimum of 30 hours of structured education a year for each nurse. QMPS 9 asks for a prospective risk analysis, such as a failure mode and effects analysis, on at least one priority process each year.
The table below is AGS's interpretation of typical evidence, not the Ministry's wording. Check every guiding measure in the manual itself.
| Chapter group | Chapters | Evidence a hospital typically keeps |
|---|---|---|
| Hospital management | GL, HC, IM, FMS | By-laws and governing body evaluations, strategic plan, staff files with credentialing and competency records, education hours, medical record audits, fire drill and alarm test logs |
| Quality and risk management | MM, IPC, QMPS | High-alert medication list, medication reconciliation records, hand hygiene audits, isolation records, incident and near-miss reports, risk analyses, quality indicator trends |
| Patient-centred care | ACC, PFR | Admission, transfer and discharge criteria, handover records, consent forms, complaint log, patient education records |
| Patient services | ASC, ONCO, MI, ES, OS, CC, LAB, BB, OTHER | Preoperative checklists, time-out compliance audits, service policies, laboratory QC and transfusion records |
Is accreditation linked to licensing or Ministry contracts?
Accreditation is not the same as a licence to operate. When the programme began, the Ministry wrote a set of basic standards partly because licensing law lacked basic requirements, and built the accreditation standards on top of them.
The link is with contracting. An account of the programme by Ministry officials, published in 2007, explains that the 1983 decree ties accreditation results to the Ministry's contracts with hospitals. Accreditation was not compulsory, but it became a practical condition for contracting with the Ministry and other public purchasers.
That account describes the programme as it stood in 2007. Confirm how results are used today with the Ministry's accreditation office before you plan around it.
How should a hospital prepare for an MoPH survey?
Start with a self-assessment against the guiding measures, chapter by chapter, and mark the chapters that do not apply to your services. Rank the gaps by COR status and risk score, then assign each one an owner and a date.
Next, run the system long enough to produce records. Annual items such as staff education, fire drills and the prospective risk analysis cannot be created the week before a survey. Hold an internal audit and a mock survey that follows a patient from admission to discharge, so you test the handovers between departments.
If your hospital is also weighing an international programme, our guide to JCI hospital accreditation describes that route. For a regional comparison, see our guide to the CBAHI national hospital standards used in Saudi Arabia. Other kits are in the Healthcare and Pharmaceutical collection.
How AGS can help
The Hospitals in Lebanon (QMS) - MoPH kit contains 47 editable Microsoft Word documents. It includes a hospital accreditation quality manual, a quality and patient safety policy and 14 procedures, from governance and human capital to medication safety, infection prevention and patient rights. It also has 16 forms and records, 9 checklists including a COR readiness checklist and a mock survey checklist, 3 guidance documents and 2 training documents.
Frequently asked questions
Do the intents in the 2022 manual count as requirements?
No. The manual states that only the guiding measures apply. The intents explain the purpose of each standard.
Does the 2022 Edition include the international patient safety goals?
Yes. The manual says the COR standards include them, so they sit among the requirements a hospital must meet.
Is MoPH accreditation the same as JCI accreditation?
No. MoPH accreditation is Lebanon's national programme, run by the Ministry against its own manual. JCI is a separate international body with its own standards.
Does buying documentation mean the hospital will be accredited?
No. Documents are a starting point. Accreditation depends on how the system is implemented and on the survey findings.
AGS provides independent documentation toolkits. This guide and the referenced kit are prepared to support Lebanese Ministry of Public Health hospital accreditation requirements. They are not affiliated with, endorsed by or approved by the Ministry of Public Health, HAS or ISQua, and they do not guarantee any survey or accreditation outcome.
Reviewed October 2026. Facts checked against the sources current at publication.
