HAS certification of health-care establishments (quality and safety of care)
Mandatory: article L.6113-3 of the French public-health code subjects every health-care establishment, public and private, to an external certification procedure run by the HAS. Authorised cosmetic-surgery facilities (art. L.6322-1) are covered too.
Issued by: Haute Autorité de santé (HAS), France's independent public health authority; site visits carried out by expert visitors it appoints (public-health code, art. L.6113-3)
Public hospitals, teaching hospitals, private clinics, non-profit hospitals, acute-care, rehabilitation, psychiatric and home-hospitalisation providers, dialysis units and authorised cosmetic-surgery facilities.
What this scheme covers
- C.1A single HAS framework built around three chapters — the patient, the care teams, the establishment — broken down into objectives and then into criteria assessed on site.
- C.2A site visit by HAS-appointed expert visitors combining several assessment methods: patient tracer, pathway tracer, targeted tracer, system audit and observation.
- C.3A HAS decision on one of four levels: certified with distinction, certified, certified subject to conditions, not certified. The certification report is published.
- C.4A four-year cycle for certified and certified-with-distinction decisions; a fresh full visit is scheduled sooner where the decision is certification subject to conditions or non-certification.
The link with Qualiopi
Outside vocational training: HAS certification assesses the quality and safety of care, not training activity. A hospital that also delivers publicly funded training remains subject, for that activity, to its own obligations — activity declaration, Qualiopi certification, registration as a continuing-professional-development provider. The two are steered separately, on separate evidence.
The process, summarised
- 1.Get to grips with the HAS framework version in force and identify the imperative criteria, which weigh most heavily in the decision.
- 2.Prepare continuously: internal practice review, quality and safety indicators, patient-experience data, documented action plans.
- 3.File the dossier and exchange with the HAS on the Calista platform, then prepare teams for the visit methods (patient tracer, targeted tracer, system audit).
- 4.Host the expert-visitor visit, review the report, submit observations within the procedural deadlines, then receive the HAS decision.
- 5.Put the decision to work: improvement plan on unmet criteria, preparation for the next cycle, and use of the results — which feed France's quality-based financial-incentive scheme.
FAQ — HAS certification
+Is HAS certification mandatory?
Yes. Article L.6113-3 of the public-health code subjects every health-care establishment, public or private, to this external assessment. You do not apply for it: it is scheduled with the HAS as part of a certification cycle.
+How often is an establishment visited?
The reference cycle is four years for certified and certified-with-distinction decisions. Where the decision is certification subject to conditions or non-certification, a fresh full visit is scheduled sooner, on the timetable set by the procedure.
+What happens on a "certified subject to conditions" decision?
The establishment keeps operating: the decision is not a closure. It records that requirements are unmet, opens a documented remediation phase on those points, and triggers a fresh full visit ahead of the normal end of cycle.
- Preparing for the HAS Certification Visit: the Five Assessment Methods6 min
- The Imperative Criteria of HAS Certification: Why They Decide Everything6 min
- Certified Subject to Conditions: What the Four HAS Decision Levels Mean6 min
- HAS Certification and Qualiopi: a Hospital That Trains Falls Under Both, Separately6 min
- HAS Certification 2025: What the 6th-Cycle Framework Changes6 min