The Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care accredited Oklahoma-based CareATC, one of the first on-site multi-employer healthcare providers to receive the new Network Accreditation distinction.
Here are five key notes:
1. The AAAHC Network Accreditation program focuses on organizations that own, operate and direct care for 10 or more health sites. CareATC serves more than 100 employers in 22 states with onsite services.
2. The new program focuses on the corporate organization's system of centralized governance and administration to maintain its sites of care. The defining characteristic of this accreditation is the consultative peer-based survey conducted in person at the corporate office and at several sites of care.
3. The surveyor walks through the high-caliber standards with physicians, nurses and administrators who are involved in ambulatory care. They discuss best practices and compliance before accreditation is granted to the corporate organization. Each site of care is included in networks with the certificate.
4. AAAHC has two network accreditations that combine to have 89 medical sites.
5. Jackie Hope, RN, director of quality at CareATC, said the survey was one of the best she's participated in and found the experience between the clinic and surveyor complementary for the team to grow while demonstrating the process and procedures they worked hard to build.
"Multi-site organizations succeed at providing high-quality, uniformed care because of the strength of their networks," said AAAHC CEO Stephen A Miller Jr., PhD. "We recognize how important that structure is to care delivery and we've created a collaborative, time-efficient and overarching way for organizations like CareATC to showcase the strength of their corporate backbone and demonstrate that they, as a group, deliver quality patient care."