NAMES IN THE NEWS
AAAHC Releases Its 2022 Quality Roadmap
DECEMBER 2022
The Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC) of Skokie, Illinois, released its 2022 Quality Roadmap, an analysis of data from 2,016 accreditation surveys conducted in 2021–2022, according to a release. AAAHC encourages healthcare organizations to use this resource to establish benchmarks and identify standards in areas of compliance and deficiency.
“With this annually published tool, our accredited facilities can identify themes that deserve special attention as they pursue ongoing quality improvement throughout the accreditation term,” said Noel Adachi, president and chief executive officer, in the release. “In this way, we can learn from each other and take corrective action, as necessary. While our 2022 Quality Roadmap report indicates that most facilities surveyed are in compliance with the majority of standards, it also includes several areas that warrant improvement.”
The 2022 report provides an analysis of accredited organization compliance ratings for AAAHC standards based on onsite surveys conducted January 1, 2021–March 31, 2022, according to the release. Organizations surveyed include ASCs, Medicare deemed status ASCs (MDS ASC), office-based surgery practices (OBS) and primary care settings (PC).
Although many deficiencies are similar to previous years’ findings, a few new critical areas related to infection prevention and control and safety, personnel and quality of care have increased in deficiency citations, according to the release. Notably, facilities continue to have challenges in emergency preparedness, documentation management, and credentialing and privileging.
The analysis also indicates that accredited organizations have demonstrated compliance and shown improvement in key areas within ambulatory and Medicare deemed status standards, including
- conducting business as a legally constituted entity;
- ensuring professional development and supporting the improvement of staff performance;
- having a physician or qualified provider present to address medical emergencies;
- educating patients regarding their condition or illness; and
- having a licensed provider direct pharmaceutical services.
The 2022 Quality Roadmap is available for download.