October 2017
From the President
Fall break has come and gone. Allied health education leaders are facing a somewhat uncertain future, while focusing attention on emerging opportunities like inter-professional education, international education, apprenticeships, improving pathways and accommodating changes in professional practice. Our
National Network of Health Career Programs in Two-Year Colleges (NN2) colleagues had a great conference in Colorado Springs, which I was pleased to attend on behalf of CAAHEP. I look forward to meeting with the
Association of Schools of Allied Health Professions (ASAHP) soon in San Antonio. CAAHEP is also looking to the future as we lay the groundwork for a new strategic plan.
During the recent ASPA (
Association of Specialized and Professional Accreditors) conference in Arlington, VA,
Chronicle of Higher Education Senior Reporter, Eric Kelderman, cited many challenges about which accreditors should be thinking. According to Kelderman, accreditation critics are saying that accreditors are too weak to catch bad actors, too stringent to allow innovation, unable to handle both quality assurance and quality improvement, too expensive, full of conflicts of interest, etc. He also noted that expectations of accreditation are rising, e.g., helping to reduce student debt, and strengthening institutional/programmatic accountability. Kelderman further asserts that if accreditors don’t take charge of needed change, someone else will. With that caution in mind, this seems like an opportune time for us to begin thinking about updating the CAAHEP strategic plan, and the Board has determined to begin that process at the upcoming January meeting. Potential areas we may want to consider in strategic planning include some topics addressed in the previously mentioned ASPA meeting.
- Cultural competence/diversity
- Risk management considerations
- Evidence-informed rationale for standards, and avoid being overly prescriptive.
- Accommodating innovation
- Transparency, program accountability, and quality assurance
- Process consistency
- Inter-professional education and collaborative practice.
Please contact me or other Board members with matters you think CAAHEP should address in CAAHEP’s next strategic plan.
As we work together to plan for keeping accreditation strong, it might serve us to recall these principles of accreditation standard setting from Michael Hamm’s seminal work on “The Fundamentals of Accreditation:”
- Standards should be no more burdensome than necessary to achieve the desired outcome.
- Standards should be written in a form that is clear and easy to understand.
- Standards should not discriminate against a class or group of applicants.
- All proposed standards should be given ample opportunity for public review, discussion, comment and input.
- Standard setting groups should avoid the temptation to prescribe only one model of practice if there are multiple acceptable models of methods of operation that can still achieve the same ultimate level of performance
- Standard setting bodies should avoid the temptation to propose standards that achieve social or political goals rather than contribute to performance.
- Standards should be fair and reasonable.
- Standards should withstand the “media test”, i.e. “whether a standard would make sense if explained by a volunteer leader under the challenge of an investigative reporter on national television.”
Reflection on these long-standing accreditation principles may help us with focusing some of our strategic planning.
I hope everyone in our accreditation community has safely weathered the recent storms, i.e., hurricanes in Texas, Puerto Rico, and Florida, and fire storms in California. I look forward to seeing some of you at the January Leadership Conference, and I hope many more at the Annual Meeting next April in Louisville, Kentucky.
Carolyn O'Daniel, EdD, RRT
President
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Past President Cameron Harris and President Carolyn O'Daniel attending the Health Professions Network Meeting in Arlington, Virginia.
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CAAHEP President Carolyn O'Daniel with NN2 President-Elect, Diane Osterhaus Neefe, and CAAHEP Commissioner Lois Simmons at the NN2 meeting.
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October is Medical Ultrasound Awareness Month
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To celebrate the medical ultrasound profession and to increase public awareness of the value ultrasound in healthcare, October has been deemed Medical Ultrasound Awareness Month. The profession's associations and certifying/credentialing bodies sponsor this awareness campaign, including CAAHEP sponsoring organizations:
CAAHEP has accredited more than 450 programs in the ultrasound field - ranging from multiple concentrations in diagnostic medical sonongraphy and cardiovascular technology to advanced cardiovascular technology. See the
CAAHEP website
for information on, and links to, these accredited programs.
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The Society for Diagnostic Medical Sonography (
SDMS
), a CAAHEP sponsoring organization, announced the recipients of the 2017 SDMS Awards. Congratulations to:
2017 SDMS Distinguished Educator Award Recipient
Jennifer Bagley, MPH, RDMS, RVT
2017 Stephen McLaughlin Memorial Lectureship Recipient
Joan P. Baker, MSR, RDMS, RDCS, FSDMS
Making HERstory
Sonography Student Scholarship Recipients
Sophie Debus, Laramie County Community College, Cheyenne, Wyoming
Benjamin Levin, New York Methodist Hospital, Brooklyn, New York
Both Laramie County Community College and New York Methodist Hospital have CAAHEP accredited DMS programs.
In addition, two faculty members at CAAHEP accredited diagnostic medical sonography programs have been selected at
2017 SDMS Fellows. Fellow designation is the highest honor the Society can bestow on a member. An SDMS Fellow exhibits professional qualities and attributes by contributing to the advancement of sonography and supporting the SDMS.
Congratulations to
Dora DiGiacinto, a Professor at the College of Allied Health, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, and
Kimberly Michael, an Anderson Distinguished Professor and Associate Director of the Interprofessional Academy of Educators at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC).
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Texas Surgeon Petitions to Provide Assistance Database in Emergency Situations
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Recently, CAAHEP's Executive Director, Kathy Megivern, was contacted by Andrea Cooley, DO, FACOS, a cardiothoracic surgeon in Texas, asking for CAAHEP's assistance in spreading the word on an endeavor that would ultimately assist in the time of mass casualty events. Dr. Cooley is petitioning the White House to develop a national database of all types of healthcare professionals, who would like to volunteer to relieve the medical staff at front line hospitals in the wake of natural catastrophes, such as hurricane Irma and Harvey, California wild fires, and mass casualty events such as the tragedy in Las Vegas.
According to Cooley, "These hospital front line teams are pushed to the breaking point and currently no system exists to systematically provide them relief during the initial surge of patients or in the weeks that follow."
"Ideally, I would like this database to contain background checks, license and credential verification, and specific skills so those volunteers can be matched to the specific need, have the clearance to work in that state and in that hospital, and be coordinated to cover the different phases of need.
All too often, smaller programs only focus on physicians and nurses, but as you well know, the care of patients in situations such as this requires an army of different healthcare professions." reports Cooley.
Dr. Cooley points out that in emergency situations, medical professionals are managing an influx of patients in addition to their normal patients, which gives them an “impossible task, which pushes them to their breaking point.” By establishing a federal network “where doctors, nurses, all the way through to EMT's have submitted applications, been background checked, have their licensing and credentialing verified, and really make a profile of what their special skills are, so when a disaster does happen, the government would be able to… look in the database, see who is available and… the best people for that job
would be selected.”
If you would like more information or to sign the petition at We the People, please following the link below:
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November Allied Health Professions Week
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Allied Health Professions Week will be observed on
November 5-11, 2017. The week celebrates allied health practitioners, students, and educators. CAAHEP encourages programs and professions to send photos of current and future allied health professionals and graduates in action for CAAHEP to use on the website and in social media campaigns. Please send photos to
Lorna Frazier-Lindsey and indicate the profession, program, and names where appropriate. Those in the photo will be asked to
sign a release.
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CAAHEP's
student testimonial video on the importance of selecting an accredited program, by former Recent Graduate Commissioner Katie Lukovich, CST, CSFA
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2018 CAAHEP Annual Meeting
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April 15-16, 2018
"CAAHEP Accreditation:
The Gateway to the Future"
Hyatt Regency
Louisville, Kentucky
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Each profession in the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP) system has a Committee on Accreditation (CoA) that consists of experts in the profession that are responsible for reviewing programs and making appropriate recommendations for accreditation to CAAHEP. CAAHEP reviews recommendations received from its CoAs in each profession, assures due process was followed, and takes final action on an accreditation status.
CAAHEP took the following actions at its
September 15, 2017
, meeting. Actions are identified by profession, action taken, and date of the next comprehensive evaluation. In some cases, the concentration and/or degree are also specified. Where available, a link to the accredited program is provided.
The following program was found to be in compliance with the accreditation Standards and Guidelines and was granted
continuing accreditation,
with the next comprehensive evaluation to occur
no later than 2021
. This action requires no progress report and was approved on the consent agenda.
Medical Assisting
The following programs were found to be in compliance with the accreditation Standards and Guidelines and were granted
continuing accreditation,
with the next comprehensive evaluation to occur
no later than 2022
. These actions require no progress report and were approved on the consent agenda.
Diagnostic Medical Sonography
Emergency Medical Services-Paramedic
The following program was found to be in compliance with the accreditation Standards and Guidelines and was granted
continuing accreditation,
with the next comprehensive evaluation to occur
no later than 2023
. This action requires no progress report and was approved on the consent agenda.
Orthotist/Prosthetist
The following programs were found to be in compliance with the accreditation Standards and Guidelines and were granted
continuing accreditation,
with the next comprehensive evaluation to occur
no later than 2026
. These actions require no progress report and were approved on the consent agenda.
Medical Assisting
The following programs were found to be in compliance with the accreditation Standards and Guidelines and were granted
continuing accreditation,
with the next comprehensive evaluation to occur
no later than 2027
. These actions require no progress report and were approved on the consent agenda.
Cardiovascular Technology
Molloy College
, Rockville Centre, NY (Noninvasive Vascular Study, Associate)
Diagnostic Medical Sonography
Surgical Technology
The following programs were found to be in substantial compliance with the accreditation Standards and Guidelines, with one or more Standards requiring a progress report to be submitted to the appropriate Committee on Accreditation (CoA). The programs were granted
continuing accreditation
, with the next comprehensive evaluation
to occur no later than 2022.
Emergency Medical Services-Paramedic
The following programs were found to be in substantial compliance with the accreditation Standards and Guidelines, with one or more Standards requiring a progress report to be submitted to the appropriate Committee on Accreditation (CoA). The programs were granted
continuing accreditation
, with the next comprehensive evaluation
to occur no later than 2026.
Medical Assisting
The following program was found to be in substantial compliance with the accreditation Standards and Guidelines, with one or more Standards requiring a progress report to be submitted to the appropriate Committee on Accreditation (CoA). The program was granted
continuing accreditation
, with the next comprehensive evaluation
to occur no later than 2027.
Surgical Technology
The following programs were found to be in compliance with the accreditation Standards and Guidelines and were granted
initial accreditation for a period not to exceed five (5) years.
These actions require no progress report and were approved on the consent agenda.
Emergency Medical Services-Paramedic
Medical Assisting
Surgical Technology
The following programs were found to be in substantial compliance with the accreditation Standards and Guidelines, with one or more Standards requiring a progress report to be submitted to the appropriate Committee on Accreditation (CoA). The programs were granted
initial accreditation for a period not to exceed five (5) years.
Emergency Medical Services-Paramedic
Neurodiagnostic Technology
The following programs were placed on
probationary accreditation
, with one or more Standards requiring critical attention and timely resolution to bring the program into compliance with the Standards and Guidelines. The letter outlining the reason(s) for probation is available upon request.
Medical Assisting
Standard: III.B.1.b.
Progress Report Due: December 1, 2017
Surgical Technology
Standard: IV.B.1.
Progress Report Due: November 10, 2017
Standards: IV.B.1; IV.B.2
Progress Report Due: November 10, 2017
The following program had
accreditation withdrawn
, due to noncompliance with one or more Standards. The appeal’s period has passed and the decision is final.
Emergency Medical Services-Paramedic
Emergency Training Associates/Greater Minnesota Paramedic Consortium, Jamestown, ND
Standards: I.A.; I.B.; III.A.2.; III.B.2.a.(4); III.B.2.b.(1); IV.B.1.
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Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs
25400 US Highway 19 North, Suite 158, Clearwater, FL 33763
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