Home Health & Hospice Week

Initiative integrates ISO standards with the existing process.

Home medical equipment and home care providers could soon have new accreditation options that blend traditional accreditation goals with a concern for international process standards.

The Raleigh, NC-based Accreditation Commission for Health Care and SGS US Testing Co. of Houston are teaming up to offer hybrid surveys that combine ACHC accreditation principles with ISO 9000 standards - specifically, ISO 9001:2000, an international generic management-system benchmark. Headquartered in Switzerland, SGS is the world's leading inspection, verification, testing and certification company.

"We felt accreditation needed new perspectives," ACHC President Tom Cesar tells Eli. "We're trying to be the burr in the saddle to get health care to think differently."

ACHC and SGS will perform their first hybrid survey in October with Columbus, MS-based Southern Pharmaceutical Corp., a home care pharmacy and HME supplier whose president, Doug Martin, serves on ACHC's board. The beta test will be the first step toward integrating traditional accreditation with ISO 9000.

"ISO 9000 will give providers the framework to operate and to manage their processes, while ACHC standards will give them more of the how-to as to what's expected for the right outcomes," says Houston-based SGS health care specialist Laura Prioli. "They marry up well because the ACHC side gives the how and the ISO 9000 gives the what."

Hybrid Model Aims to Decrease Errors, Costs

ACHC achieved the ISO 9001 certification last year and began looking at ways to incorporate the resulting benefits into its accreditation process.

"Our operations are more connected as a result," reports Cesar. "We also eliminated a lot of duplication, and we have much better control over documents."

ACHC has been discussing the initiative with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which is very interested in the results, Cesar says.

The second stage of the integration project will develop a hybrid standard and a data collection instrument combining ACHC principles with the International Workshop Agreement - a guideline for health service organizations based on the ISO 9004:2000 standard. A Medicare-certified home health agency will undergo the second hybrid audit combining IWA and ACHC home health standards.

"We have this first hybrid audit scheduled in October to kick this off and learn from experience and figure out the kinks and see the benefits," Prioli says. "It's breaking ground, and we're really excited about it." 

Note: More information is at www.achc.org.