The Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC) has released its 2022 Quality Roadmap, a comprehensive analysis of data from 2,016 accreditation surveys conducted in 2021-2022. AAAHC encourages health care organizations to utilize this resource to establish benchmarks and identify Standards in areas of high compliance and high deficiency as they pursue ongoing quality improvement throughout the 1,095 days of their three-year accreditation term.
“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, MBA, president and CEO of AAAHC. “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 a thorough analysis of accredited organization compliance ratings for AAAHC Standards based on onsite surveys conducted January 1, 2021 – March 31, 2022. Organizations surveyed include ambulatory surgery centers (ASC), Medicare Deemed Status ASCs (MDS ASC), office-based surgery practices (OBS), and primary care settings (PC).
Findings on High Deficiency Standards
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. Notably, AAAHC surveyors observed that facilities continue to have challenges in emergency preparedness, documentation management, and credentialing and privileging.
Findings on High Compliance Standards
The analysis from thousands of surveys also indicates that accredited organizations have demonstrated compliance and shown improvement in key areas within Ambulatory and Medicare Deemed Status Standards, which include:
- Conduct business as a legally constituted entity
- Ensure professional development and support the improvement of staff performance
- A physician or qualified provider is present to address medical emergencies
- Educate patients regarding their condition or illness
- Pharmaceutical services are directed by a licensed provider
“Our annual Quality Roadmap is designed to serve as a tool for self-assessment where each organization can measure their performance to improve the quality of care delivered to patients,” said Julie Lynch, MS, BSN, RN, director, Institute for Quality Improvement. “This annual analysis provides one of many tools for health care facilities and their staff to help them elevate the level of quality within their organization.”
The 2022 AAAHC Quality Roadmap is available for download today.
