The Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care created an orthopedic certification program for ASCs to denote high quality of care and compliance.
Here's what you should know:
1. With joint replacement procedure demand projected to grow at unprecedented rates — according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality — AAAHC developed an orthopedics-specific certification based on its ASC accreditation program.
2. To earn the orthopedic certification an ASC must already have achieved overall accreditation.
3. The certification is based on several orthopedic-specific factors including:
- Credentialing and privileging of providers
- Rigorous prescreening criteria to ensure optimal patient outcomes
- Clinical care based on evidence-based guidelines
4. AAAHC developed the certification in response to the requests of AAAHC-accredited centers.
AAAHC Senior Vice President of Accreditation Services Tess Poland, BSN, MSN, RN, said in a release, "The goal of the certification program is to provide a highly [clinically] relevant resource that recognizes centers of specialty excellence. We plan to extend our certification program to include more specialties in the future."
Standards for the certification are in the "2018 Accreditation Handbook for Ambulatory Health Care."