Obtaining organizational health care accreditation is a huge accomplishment. It showcases the organization’s stellar performance and dedication to providing the upmost quality and care to it’s patients and community. Without proper guidance and team-wide support, accreditation readiness can be very overwhelming and challenging. Most healthcare organizations will dedicate key personnel to streamline this process. Others will opt to utilize an experienced consultant to ensure accreditation readiness. After a confirmed commitment to accreditation an action plan is necessary; such that it’ll enable the organization the ease ability to leveraging this lengthy process.
Five Key Planning Steps for Accreditation?
1. Establish a Plan
An actionable plan is imperative. It helps to position your team, establishes a playbook, and ultimately sets the pace for the process from start to finish. Many organizations may be compliant based on the required standards; others may have work to do. As a result, a concrete action plan is necessary as it helps to maintain organization throughout the accreditation seeking process.
2. Complete an Organizational Analysis
Experts highly recommend that organizations complete a baseline analysis. Some organizations choose to establish a baseline analysis through outsourcing, others will lean on there internal compliance team for guidance. This analysis will set the tone on where the organization lands in accreditation preparation and can provide an internal quality continuous improvement scorecard. Ideally, organizations use this scorecard as an internal source to help leverage quality healthcare initiatives within the organization.
3. Organize Your Workplan
Being organized is imperative in securing timely and efficient accreditation preparation. Creating a crosswalk is a great resource for cross-functional team organization. It will enable team alignment and allow for individuals to remain focused on there responsibilities throughout the accreditation process. Currently, there are numerous platforms available at no cost that organizations can utilize to maintain editable and shareable internal documents.
4. Establish a Budget
It is essential for organizations to review there current budget and determine if there warrants any revisions; as additional company resources may be necessary to help leverage accreditation. There may be a need to reallocate resources, increase budgetary line items, or more importantly increase personnel to ensure accreditation readiness. If not handled efficiently, all budgetary changes can be costly to the organization and ultimately impact the organization’s bottom line.
5. Embrace the Journey
All team members should embrace the accreditation journey from start to finish. As a result, organizational leadership must be is engaged, readily available, and well versed in there target area of expertise. In addition, non-leadership team members must be prepared to engage with inspectors within there area of focus. Overall, all team members are key players in the accreditation process. While we know the accreditation process can be challenging; this doesn’t mean it can’t be fun and informative for the entire organization.
In conclusion, mastering accreditation has become a big staple in the healthcare industry. Overall, patients and payors seek out organizations that have this unique seal of approval. It showcases the organization’s intent to provide quality care, and enables the organization a competitive advantage within the market landscape.
Our team is ready to be apart of your accreditation journey! We will support your needs, reduce the burden of worry throughout the process, and ensure the organization gains its unique seal of approval. Ultimately, our goal is to help leverage your organization such that it can fully compete within a very competitive market landscape!
