The Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care 2017 Return on Investment Survey identified how accreditation has benefited ambulatory healthcare providers.
The survey gathered responses from about 400 ambulatory organizations. Here are the top three areas that benefited the most from accreditation:
1. Implementing new risk assessment/prevention activities, policies or procedures: 88 percent of surveyed organizations reported that accreditation helped them adopt new activities such as checklists and screening for venous thromboembolism, sleep apnea and depression.
2. Performance on clinical records audit: 83 percent of respondents stated that accreditation led to the use of a robust audit and tracking system with a more structured audit process, as well as conducting quality improvement studies.
3. Provider credentialing and privileging processes: 79 percent of surveyed organizations reported that accreditation helped them follow AAAHC standards, conduct more audits, standardize forms and use a credentialing verification organization.
Other areas of improvement identified in the survey include care coordination, patient safety and quality of care, patient, provider and staff satisfaction and financial performance. The accreditation survey can increase third party payer contracts and reimbursement rates as well as reduce facility liability costs, according to the survey.
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