Laboratory medicine, along with the airline industry, has a long history of utilising quality management systems. It took until 1999 for the Joint Accreditation Committee of the International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT) and the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT), known as JACIE, to be established as an accreditation system in the field of haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). The aim was to create a standardised system of accreditation to be officially recognised across Europe, and it was based on the accreditation standards established by the US-based Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT).Since the concept of JACIE was originally launched, many European centres have applied for initial accreditation with other centres gaining reaccreditation for the second, third or fourth time. Transplant units, outside of Europe, have accepted the importance of the JACIE Standards, with units in South Africa, Singapore and Saudi Arabia also gaining accreditation.There is evidence that both donor and patient care have improved within the accredited centres (Passweg et al., Bone Marrow Transplant 47:906–923; 2012: Demiriz IS, Tekgunduz E, Altuntas F (2012) What is the most appropriate source for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation?).Peripheral Stem Cell/Bone Marrow/Cord Blood Bone Marrow Res. (2012):Article ID 834040 (online)). However, there is a lack of published evidence demonstrating that this improvement directly results from better nursing care. Therefore, the authors conducted a survey of nursing members of the European Blood and Marrow Transplantation Nurses Group (EBMT (NG)) to identify how nurses working in the area of HSCT felt that JACIE impacted in the care they delivered and the general implications of JACIE for nurses.

Achieving accredited status for hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) programme shows an ongoing commitment to the quality and safety of the services offered and of the activities performed. Accreditation is considered a standard through which a healthcare facility or service is shown to offer quality and healthcare that meet minimum standards and guidelines offered by different quality boards (at national and international levels). Among the most well-known accreditation agencies in the world are the Joint Commission and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JC and JCAHO), the International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua), the Accreditation Commission for Health Care, Inc. (ACHC), the Healthcare Quality Association on Accreditation (HQAA) and, specifically for HCT programmes, the FACT and the JACIE.Any patient entering a healthcare facility wants and deserves to know that staff is trained and facilities are clean and well maintained and that procedures follow standards that reduce chances of error, infection or negligence.