The Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC) has rewritten its Standards in advance of the publication of the 2018 Accreditation Handbook for Ambulatory Health Care.
The revised standards will be implemented during surveys that begin on or after March 1, 2018, notes AAAHC in a media release.
The standards were revised to include “elements of compliance,” reflecting discrete decision points that serve as indicators of what surveyors look for to determine compliance. They also were rewritten to be more succinct and concise, presenting clear points that must be met by accredited organizations not participating in the Medicare Deemed Status program.
The goal of the update is to increase clarity and reduce ambiguity during the evaluation process, AAAHC explains.
“The goal of the standards rewrite is to make survey decisions and accompanying ratings more clear and transparent, improve understanding of the standards, and simplify compliance for organizations,” states Frank Chapman, chair of the AAAHC Standards and Survey Procedures Committee (SSPC), in the release.
“We implemented the revised ratings process with our health plan surveys several years ago and have received a very positive response. We will now offer them to our ambulatory organizations to further improve their survey experience,” he adds.
The rewritten 2018 version of the handbook includes few entirely new or different standards, but rather presents the expectations for demonstrating compliance in a more user-friendly format, the release continues.
The new format has also been incorporated into the curriculum presented at forthcoming AAAHC Achieving Accreditation sessions.
[Source: AAAHC]
