How to verify a clinic's accreditation: JCI, ISO and official registries

A polished website accredits nothing. A “JCI” badge in a footer proves nothing either: you have to check it at source. The good news is that almost everything can be verified in twenty minutes from your sofa, before you pay any deposit.

First check: hospital accreditation. Joint Commission International publishes a searchable list of accredited organisations with the date of their last survey; if the hospital is not there, it is not accredited, whatever the brochure says. Europe has national equivalents (Temos, QHA Trent, regional health registries) and in Turkey the Ministry of Health publishes the centres authorised to treat international patients.

Second: know the difference between ISO and clinical accreditation. ISO 9001 certifies management processes, not medical outcomes. It is nice to have, but it is not JCI and it does not replace a health licence. If a centre only shows you an ISO certificate, ask for the licence and the operating-theatre registration.

Third: the surgeon. Look up their registration number with the national medical body (the provincial medical college in Spain, the Turkish Medical Association, the cédula profesional in Mexico, the Landesärztekammer in Germany). Check the specialty, not just the medical degree: plastic surgery, maxillofacial surgery and dermatology are different trainings and are not interchangeable.

Fourth: who is actually writing to you. Many first contacts come from agencies, not clinics. Ask plainly: do you work for the hospital or are you an intermediary? Who signs the informed consent? Who is responsible if there is a complication? Ask for the legal name of the centre and search for that entity, not the marketing brand.

Fifth: the paperwork. A serious centre sends an itemised quote with currency, informed consent in your language, a follow-up policy and a clear statement of what is covered if the procedure has to be repeated. If the price only exists on WhatsApp and changes every week, you already have your answer.

Common red flags: discounts that expire today, identical reviews posted on the same day, before-and-after photos with different lighting and angles, transfers to personal bank accounts, and refusing to name the surgeon until you arrive. No discount is worth surgery from someone you cannot verify.

At medviajes we only list centres whose accreditation and licence we have checked in public registries, and we show when we checked. Even so, check for yourself: it is your health and it takes twenty minutes.