Meridian HealthAccredited care across Latin America

What accreditation means, and what it does not

Concrete answers about how clinics get on this site, what each seal actually certifies, and what happens when something goes wrong. Including the limits, because you deserve those before you book a flight.

What each accreditation certifies

Joint Commission International
Joint Commission International audits the same patient-safety standards used by top US hospitals, on site, every three years.
AAAASF
AAAASF inspects surgical facilities and operating rooms, and requires that every surgeon holds board certification.
COFEPRIS (Mexico)
COFEPRIS is Mexico's federal health authority: it licenses the facility and inspects its sanitary standards.
ISO 9001
ISO 9001 certifies that the clinic's clinical and administrative processes are documented, measured and externally audited.
ACHC (Colombia)
ACHC is Colombia's voluntary healthcare accreditation, awarded only to institutions that clear its clinical-quality standards.
MINISTRY (Costa Rica)
Costa Rica's Ministry of Health licenses and inspects the facility. It is a national operating licence, not an international accreditation like JCI.

An accreditation certifies a facility and its processes. It does not certify an individual outcome, and it is not a guarantee.

How we verify a clinic

  1. We read the certificate, not the clinic's website

    For every accreditation we record the issuing body, the certificate number and the expiry date, checked against the accrediting body's own public register where one exists.

  2. We re-check on expiry, not on a marketing cycle

    A record moves to "pending" the day its certificate expires, and the badge on the card changes with it. Pending means we could not confirm it today, not that the clinic failed anything.

  3. Prices are the clinic's own published packages

    We publish what the clinic commits to in writing, plus the inclusions and the exclusions in the same list. We do not negotiate, mark up or take a cut of your surgery.

  4. We publish what we could not confirm

    If a rating has few reviews, if a flight time is missing for your state, or if a certificate is unverified, the card says so. Blank space is more honest than a confident guess.

The limits of what we can tell you

  • We do not inspect operating rooms. We rely on accrediting bodies that do, and we tell you which one and when.
  • We do not assess your case. Whether you are a candidate is a clinical judgment that only the operating surgeon can make after reviewing your records.
  • We do not see outcomes. We have no access to complication rates per surgeon, because no register in these five countries publishes them reliably.
  • We are not a party to your treatment contract. That contract is between you and the clinic, under the law of the country where the surgery happens.
  • Demo prices on this preview are fictional and exist to show how the comparison works.

What happens if something goes wrong

During the stay

The operating clinic is responsible for treating complications that arise while you are in its care. Ask, before you sign anything, what its package covers on readmission, extra nights and revision surgery. Most packages exclude complications; the ones on this site list that exclusion in plain sight.

After you fly home

Care becomes local. A complication in Texas is treated in Texas, at US prices, usually without the surgeon who operated. That risk is real and it is the main reason to keep a home clinician involved from the start, and to budget for it rather than hope.

Who answers for the surgery

The clinic and the surgeon, under the malpractice law of their own country. Claims are filed there, in that language, on their timelines. US malpractice insurance does not follow you abroad, and this site is not a party to your care.

Complication insurance

Medical-travel complication policies exist and are sold separately by third parties. We do not sell one and take no commission. If the clinic offers one, ask what it pays out for, where treatment happens and who decides.

Before you commit, ask the clinic these

  1. 01Who is the operating surgeon, and what is their board certification number?
  2. 02What exactly does the package exclude, in writing?
  3. 03What happens, and who pays, if I need a second surgery in country?
  4. 04How many nights must I stay before I am cleared to fly?
  5. 05What documents will I take home: discharge notes, imaging, implant references?
  6. 06Who do I call at 2 a.m. from home in the first month?
Questions, including the uncomfortable ones