The Student Health Center received accreditation in June from the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care, a non-profit organization that provides accreditation to health care organizations in order to ensure they provide certain standards of care quality.
Accreditation is a voluntary process, and all applicants are evaluated on the core standards of rights of patients, governance, administration, quality of care provided, quality management and improvement, clinical records and health information, and facilities and environment, according to the AAAHC’s website.
“The process was very detailed,” said Daniel Bruey, director of the Student Health Center, in an e-mail. “Initially, we completed and submitted an accreditation survey application and supporting documentation including but not limited to organizational charts, mission statements, all administrative policies and procedures, all clinical policies and procedures, documentation of quality studies, position descriptions, patient survey results, and many other documents.”
The AAAHC visited the health center in May, when the center was inspected, charts, policies and procedures were reviewed, students and staff were interviewed and preliminary survey findings were discussed, Bruey said.
The accreditation lasts for three years, after which the health center must re-apply if it chooses to maintain its accreditation.
The accreditation process does not, however, implement any new changes to the daily operations of the health center.
“Day-to-day operations do not change drastically. Students have been the recipients of low cost, quality care from the center for many years now so the changes may not be too visible,” Bruey said.
Bruey added that this accreditation should make students comfortable about seeking care at the health center.
“We were looking to dispel inaccurate information that students have heard about the health center and we were looking to validate all of the hard work that goes into providing a health care facility of quality,” he said.
news@theeagleonline.com
