In the USA, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals, (JCAH) has for many years been engaged in defining and promoting standards of good practice in health care. In 1981, a small multi-disciplinary team from the UK supported by a King's Fund grant visited the JCAH in Chicago and took part in two hospital surveys. This paper records the proceedings of the seminar at which members of the study team described their impressions of accreditation surveying in the USA and their attempts at a similar exercise in the UK.