Browsing by Subject "accreditation"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Fundamentals for Assessment Success: A Sustainable Data Organization Strategy Within a Construction Management Technology Program
    (American Society for Engineering Education, 2015-06) White, J.; Ray, Veto; Cooney, Elaine; Department of Engineering Technology, Purdue School of Engineering and Technology, IUPUI
    Few events within a successful academic program are as administratively demanding as an onsite accreditation assessment visit. It is a particularly stressful period where a program must fully account for itself by presenting evidence to external evaluators that its students, faculty, alumni, administrators, curriculum, policies, resources, and facilities satisfy a rigorous criteria established by an accrediting body. To accomplish this, the program must retrieve all of the relevant data, compile it into a prodigious report and organize it in a manner that is both profoundly clear and obvious while simultaneously complying with the report format requirements prescribed by the accrediting institution. Anyone who has experienced an on-site accreditation visit is very familiar with these daunting challenges. A number of factors seem to conspire against the successful execution of this documentation process. One of the most fundamental is the complexity associated with the ongoing, sustainable, semester-to-semester compilation of data from a myriad of different sources. Of these various sources, faculty is one of the most critical. It is the faculty after all, that is the origin of the assessment data that forms the bedrock of any program’s assessment regimen. This challenge is compounded if the program is heavily dependent on adjunct faculty. Many educational institutions that offer a technology-based curriculum are particularly reliant on adjunct faculty. Clearly adjunct faculty is highly valued in technology programs for its course – specific expertise and industry correlation. However this faculty is typically teaching as a supplement to a separate full time career and therefore does not have the resources available to devote to a protracted or confusing assessment routine. In order to compile a successful assessment report, a sustainable assessment program must be established that distills the complex requirements into components that can be easily and efficiently executed by its faculty. The reporting system must be sufficiently clear and unambiguous such that it becomes a part of the semester close-out routine. Additionally, a reporting system must be developed that efficiently captures crucial assessment data, making it available for systematic review at the conclusion of every semester and ultimately for inclusion in the accreditation report. This paper documents the process of a construction management technology program as it developed its own ultimately successful assessment structure by focusing on the methods and the tools. The tools described include: Simplified, unambiguous forms that capture assessment data A reporting system to facilitate data dissemination A formalized process that ensures collaboration through the utilization of the captured data on a regular, end-of-semester routine Implementation of an assessment routine that clearly links course data to outcomes to program.
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    Maintaining a Competent Public Health Workforce: Lessons Learned From Experiences With Public Health Accreditation Domain 8 Standards and Measures
    (Wolters Kluwer, 2018-01) Yeager, Valerie A.; Wharton, M. Kristina; Beitsch, Leslie M.; Health Policy and Management, School of Public Health
    Context: Public health accreditation is an ongoing national movement to improve the quality of public health departments and the public health system in the United States; however, calls have been made for more evidence regarding best practices in the accreditation process. Objective: The purpose of this work is to provide evidence about best practices in the accreditation process, specifically within the workforce development domain. It is the first in-depth investigation into workforce development using data collected by Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB). Design: Using deidentified accreditation application data from PHAB, this study employs a mixed-methods approach to examining practices, lessons learned, challenges, and strategies pertaining to workforce development planning for Domain 8. Setting: United States. Participants: US state (n = 19) and local health departments (n = 115). Main Outcome Measures: Public Health Accreditation Board assessment scores for the workforce measures and the relationship between the health department's approach to meeting a PHAB measure criteria and the PHAB assessment score. Results: Of the 9 different approaches identified as ways of encouraging the development of a sufficient number of qualified public health workers (version 1, measure 8.1.1), only 1 approach (local health department internship programs with schools of public health; B = 0.25, P < .03) was significantly related to higher scores. An opportunity for improvement identified for measure 8.2.1 was that plans missing a clear identification of the gap between current staff competencies and staff needs were associated with a 0.88-point decrease in the 4-point score (P < .001). Conclusions: Findings suggest that there are approaches adopted for meeting PHAB domain 8 measures that will impact the overall conformance assessment and score of a health department pursuing accreditation. There are several opportunities for improvement that health departments might consider when planning for accreditation or assessing their activities.
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    Standardizing an Organizational Approach to Hospital Accreditation at an Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit
    (2021-04-29) Pridemore, Alyssa; Van Antwerp, Leah; Department of Occupational Therapy, School of Health and Human Sciences; Daniels, Renee
    Accreditation is a process that many healthcare organizations undergo in order to evaluate the quality, efficiency, and effectiveness of the services they provide. Current literature suggests that many organizations struggle with the accreditation process because it is such a large undertaking. An organization that obtains accreditation status is found to comply with a set of international recognized standards which demonstrates to stakeholders that they provide high quality, evidence-based, and safe care. In the last decade, healthcare has rapidly evolved from volume-based care to high-quality value-based care. With increased focus on valuable healthcare, accreditation has never been more important. The aim of this capstone project was to evaluate the impact of implementing a standardized organizational approach to CARF medical rehabilitation accreditation for an inpatient rehabilitation unit at a hospital in the Midwest. Various organizational resources such as a policy library, an accreditation tracking tool, a meeting structure with schedules and agendas, and a project management structure were developed to assist therapy leaders in preparing for and maintaining compliance with CARF accreditation standards. The results of this project were highly satisfactory in terms of its purpose, relevance, and utility. By utilizing occupational therapy’s unique role in utilizing evidence-based research, analysis skills, and patient-centered care, a systematic project management structure was successfully created and implemented thus improving the overall quality of healthcare services at an inpatient rehabilitation facility. This project demonstrates the impact of engaging in accreditation on maximizing the overall quality of healthcare services.