The AAAHC has been accrediting ambulatory facilities since 1970.
Standards
Despite the extremely high quality of care at small, rural hospitals, many fail to meet other accreditation expectations because the requirements aren’t pertinent to smaller-scale health facilities. In response, AAHHS launched two pilot survey programs in July 2013 to help create standards specifically designed for small, rural hospitals. Over the course of several months, two sets of surveys were conducted, each involving hospitals and critical access hospitals. One group was surveyed to address clinical and administrative services, while the second group was surveyed to address the physical environment in addition to clinical and administrative services. Through these extensive pilot surveys, AAHHS surveyors had the opportunity to establish an in-depth review process that helps ensure small, rural hospitals adopt the best practices and deliver optimal patient care.
AAHHS standards were carefully formulated and specifically designed for the prevailing patient care approach of the smaller hospital. The standards have been thoroughly field-tested and reflect feedback from the hospital community to ensure they are tailored precisely to the needs of small and rural hospitals. As AAHHS developed its accreditation program, it reached out to the smaller hospital community to seek their input on the standards, the survey process and the pilot surveys, to ensure that its accreditation approach was tailored to the world of small hospitals. Based on CMS’ Conditions of Participation for hospitals, AAHHS standards are written in simple, non-technical language and laid out in a way that is easy to follow, with worksheets and resources added for easy reference. Accreditation underscores an organization’s dedication to optimal healthcare and the transformation of the organization based on either the AAHHS’ “Accreditation Handbook for Hospitals” or “Accreditation Handbook for Critical Access Hospitals.”
Survey process
Once an organization obtains the AAHHS Standards Handbook, it is encouraged to conduct a self-assessment. This enables administrators to feel confident they are ready for a survey. After applications are submitted and prior to the survey, AAHHS offers a consultative conference call with staff to answer any questions they may have about the process. AAHHS staff will reach out to the organization to review the survey process and develop a survey agenda specific to its hospital. Additionally, the chair of the survey team will call the organization approximately one week before the announced survey to review any questions staff have about the survey process.
This process is intended to shorten the time of the subsequent on-site visit, and reduce the time that staff is distracted from their day-to-day responsibilities. AAHHS surveyors have decades of experience working in small, rural hospitals in addition to surveying expertise.
The AAHHS peer-review accreditation process is collaborative and consultative, involving a comprehensive, two-way approach in an interactive atmosphere that paves the way for continuous improvement and industry recognition. AAHHS accreditation demonstrates the hospital is meeting industry standards and helps staff prepare for their annual review with state health departments.
Costs
AAHHS accreditation is competitively priced, and AAHHS offers payment plans to make the expense easier on a hospital’s bottom line.
Benefits
AAHHS accreditation can help organizations raise the bar in providing safe, high-quality care. It ensures that hospitals adopt best practices and deliver patient care at nationally recognized standards, while bringing public recognition and giving a hospital a competitive edge against larger metropolitan hospitals.
AAHHS offers educational seminars taught by expert faculty members who take staff step-by-step through the accreditation process. These sessions discuss the Standards in detail, focus on quality improvement and demonstrate best practices. AAHHS accreditation not only boosts the self-esteem of hospital staff by knowing that their hospital delivers care at nationally recognized Standards, but it can also be a powerful incentive for attracting the best and brightest when recruiting new staff members.
The AAHHS survey is consultative rather than prescriptive or dictatorial, and surveyors frequently offer suggestions on ways to improve systems without it being part of the accreditation decision — simply a suggestion from one peer to another. Hospital staff is reviewed by peers— professionals whose opinion means more than that of bureaucrats. Much like the one-on-one care smaller hospitals deliver to patients, AAHHS brings a more personal touch to its surveys. Hospitals that have achieved AAHHS accreditation say they reaped huge benefits from the surveyors’ suggestions.
