Indicadores administrativos y financieros antes y después de la acreditación en las instituciones prestadoras de servicios de salud en Colombia

introduction: accreditation as a voluntary health care system process in colombia seeks to guarantee a safe attention and efficient processes. however, health care providing institutions do not seem to have adequate and objective information that allows definition of conducts about the process, activities needed to be achieved and their results. methodology: a descriptive and retrospective study was performed in accredited health care service institutions in colombia, which determined the change in administrative and financial markers occurring during the accreditation process. this change was established by the difference between the measurements at two given times: the year before initiating the process and the year following the accreditation. the total number of institutions that had been accredited for one year or more by june 2009 which accepted to participate in the project was considered. results: when applying the analysis to the whole group of institutions, an improvement in the quality of the following markers was found: gloss ratio value, utilities ratio, operation room draw, cancelled procedures ratio and bed or gurney accidents. the ratio of gloss number, bed draw, average day stay and adverse event ratio behaved negatively. conclusion: an unexpected improvement is highlighted, and the observed changes cannot be directly attributed to the accreditation. this study must be the initial phase of projects that allow for establishment of correlation between accreditation and observed changes.