October 2018
From the President
Fall is upon us. For those of us in an academic setting, the fall semester is well under way as is the football season. The two go together like bread and butter. If you are fortunate enough to live in an area of the United States where there actually are four seasons, each with its own unique weather, you are experiencing the change in temperatures. The drop in temperatures forces us to change our wardrobe to warmer clothes with long sleeves and duller colors to match the gloominess of the autumn weather. In addition to the change in temperature and our wardrobe, the leaves on the trees are changing, time will change, and even menus will change in our favorite restaurants as well as on our dinner table at home. How I look forward to that first taste of warm cider from the harvested apples on a chilly day or to eat that first piece of pumpkin pie that was made from a large orange pumpkin that once grew in a pumpkin patch. Changes from summer to fall bring new opportunities so let’s embrace and appreciate them.
Whether you call it fall or autumn, this time of year can be associated with melancholia for some of us. Summertime fun is a memory and the cooler temperatures remind us of the bitter cold of winter that is approaching. These changes cause many people to turn inward, both physically and mentally. But to make lemonade out of the lemons, this period of melancholy inspired many writers and poets to write positively about autumn, perhaps to cheer us up. Here are three of my favorites quotes about autumn:
- "Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking successive autumns." — George Eliot
- "Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree." — Emily Bronte
- "Summer ends, and autumn comes, and he who would have it otherwise would have high tide always and a full moon every night." — Hal Borland
So as we get back to CAAHEP business, ‘tis the season for strategic planning, again. It is hard to believe the plan that we developed three years ago has met its end, much like the once green leaves on the trees that brought us shade from the sun but now are turning to those beautiful bright colors and will eventually fall from the trees. I was reviewing past issues of the October
Communiqué
and found that two past presidents, Dr. McPherson (2010) and Dr. Skalko (2014), both led the charge to develop strategic plans for CAAHEP. So here am I, about to follow suit of these two leaders as we develop a new strategic plan in January 2019. As you think about where CAAHEP has been over the past years and where you would like to see CAHHEP go in the coming years, please share your thoughts with the Board, the staff and our executive director.
As the clock continues to tick and we all grow older, so does CAAHEP. All of us are well aware of our age and how our body changes as we grow older each year but do you realize that CAAHEP is growing older along with us? In 2019 CAAHEP will celebrate its
25th Anniversary
. The staff and Board have already started planning for this special event in our history. We will officially kick off our anniversary in April at the Annual Meeting and will continue to celebrate our history through the following April. A special 2019 Annual Meeting Logo has been created to acknowledge this milestone. I invite you to be an important part of our 25
th
anniversary by attending the 2019 Annual Meeting (April 14-15) at the Hotel Menger in San Antonio, Texas. The meeting theme is
“
CAAHEP’s Silver Anniversary: 25 Years of Doing What Matters.
”
Be a part of the celebration by attending the 2019 Annual Meeting. We are CAAHEP strong because of you!
There will be many activities in the next year as we celebrate our past and look to the future. In addition to the special celebration at the annual meeting in San Antonio to kick off our anniversary, some of the other activities will include guest blogs, which will be published each month, sharing photos from past events, a timeline of our history, and a special section on the CAAHEP website with historical information and highlights. If you have any photographs from past CAAHEP events, please feel free to send them to the
Office
so that your photographs can be included in the celebration.
As you continue to enjoy the fall weather, wearing your favorite warm sweater, sipping on a pumpkin spice drink or warm apple cider, or perhaps smelling the aroma of burning leaves from a neighbor’s yard, keep in mind that the CAAHEP executive director, staff and Board of Directors are all here for you and appreciate you as an important part of our organization. As we look forward to the change of season and the year ahead of us, I want to share one last quote about autumn with you. This quote is by Samuel Butler, "autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits." Have a great fall, may your football team be victorious, and may you enjoy a very Happy Thanksgiving dinner with your loved ones. We have much to be thankful for in the coming year as CAAHEP
continues doing what matters.
I am thankful for what you have done to make CAAHEP the great organization that it is today.
Gregory Ferenchak, Ed.D., R.T.(R)(QM)
President
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What is CHEA and Why Does It Matter?
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Submitted by Kathleen Megivern, JD, CAAHEP Executive Vice President
The
Council for Higher Education Accreditation
(CHEA) is the non-governmental body that “accredits the accreditors.” CAAHEP has been recognized by CHEA since the very beginning of both organizations. We are deeply committed to the principle of “third party recognition.” So, it was deeply distressing when we received a letter from CHEA in March that threatened us with the loss of that recognition if we failed to fully meet the CHEA criteria by October 1
st.
CHEA has become very focused on transparency issues (as has the US Department of Education and others involved in accreditation). So, there were two areas in their criteria where they found CAAHEP to be deficient. The first had to do with the requirement that all accredited programs must post on their website the results of at least one student learning outcome (graduation, job placement, certification or licensure pass rates). Our Committees on Accreditation knew this requirement was coming and they all adopted policies about what should be posted. But progress in getting those links was very slow and, basically, CHEA ran out of patience! So CAAHEP staff, along with several of our CoAs worked all summer to compile the URLs for student learning outcomes. We were able to submit a spreadsheet on October 1
st
that contained links for all but 7 of our programs with continuing accreditation. We even had several Initial programs that were able to supply links. In total, we submitted 1,920 URLs. But the job is not done as we learned when we began reviewing links that were fine a few months ago but were now broken. We need the cooperation of every accredited program to make sure you have a working link posted and to let us know if the URL changes (contact
[email protected]).
The second area of transparency has to do with publishing for all the world to see, the bases for accreditation decisions. While we had been doing that for adverse decisions, we needed to also include the information for awards of accreditation. That means that all citations (Standards not met) needed to be published every time the Board of Directors takes an accreditation action. In order to do that, we first had to amend our confidentiality policy because previously the content of award letters was considered confidential. We have now added the following statement to our confidentiality policy:
“In order to comply with the need for public disclosure, CAAHEP will publish the Standards citations that appear in accreditation award letters.”
So, after every CAAHEP Board of Directors meeting you can find a report on the CAAHEP website that discloses every action, the bases for those actions, whether and when progress reports are due and when the next comprehensive evaluation will take place.
CHEA has revised its criteria and it’s clear that in the future the issues of transparency and student learning outcomes will be even more “front and center.” Once the new criteria are finalized we will be reporting on the changes to come.
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During its September 21st meeting, the CAAHEP Board approved initial accreditation of the first
Clinical Research Professional
programs. Congratulations to the
Masters of Science in Clinical Research Management, Masters of Science in Clinical Research Management - Regulatory Science Focus, and
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The CAAHEP Board also approved the first
Art Therapy program in September. Congratulations to Master's in Art Therapy program at
Edinboro University, in Edinboro, Pennsylvania!
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Report from the SDMS Liaison Meeting
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Twenty-one organizations including physician, scientist, certification, professional society, and accreditation organizations participated and gave input. Representatives from all three of the sonography related CAAHEP CoAs, the
Joint Review Committee on Education in Diagnostic Medical Sonography
(JRC-DMS), the
Joint Review Committee on Education in Cardiovascular Technology
(JRC-CVT), and the
Committee on Accreditation for Advanced Cardiovascular Sonography
CoA-ACS), were also in attendance. Topics of interest to CAAHEP included a robust discussion of the ongoing challenge to define minimum standards vs advanced practice. Opportunities for career advancement currently exist for lead clinical technologists, lab directors, managers, and technical directors. SDMS stated they are currently looking at the
minimum
education standards including the desire to establish and require an entry-level academic degree for the professions and determining where advanced practice fits in. While no conclusions were drawn, some models discussed included exploring recognition of advanced practice that would fall outside an academic model, i.e., more along the lines of earning a badge or certificate based on demonstration of experiential achievements and continuing education which differs from the current CoA-ACS approach to formal academic education and CAAHEP accreditation. Overall, CAAHEP can expect that ongoing discussion regarding support for advanced practice models from communities of interest will continue.
Other key topics discussed were:
- Work Relate Musculoskeletal Injury – in spite of over a decade of education and discussion, nothing has changed in numbers of career altering injuries. The American Registry of Diagnostic Medical Sonography (ARDMS) has launched a “Grand Challenge” to explore solutions.
- An update of legislative actions to license sonographers was provided. Currently, only 4 states have licensure for the professions.
CAAHEP can expect updates on these issues that face the three imaging Committees on Accreditation and their professions.
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WELCOME NEW COMMISSIONERS
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Please join CAAHEP in welcoming the following new
CAAHEP Commissioners:
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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 21, 2018 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, links to the programs' website are provided.
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 2023
. These actions require no progress report and were approved on the consent agenda.
Diagnostic Medical Sonography
Emergency Medical Services-Paramedic
Orthotist/Prosthetist
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 2024.
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 2027
. 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 2028.
These actions require no progress report and were approved on the consent agenda.
Diagnostic Medical Sonography
Neurodiagnostic Technology
Surgical Technology
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 2022
. A link to the cited Standard is provided.
Medical Assisting
Progress Report Due: November 1, 2019
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 2023
. Links to the cited Standards are provided.
Emergency Medical Services-Paramedic
Progress Report Due: June 1, 2019
Standard:
Progress Report Due: December 1, 2018
Progress Report Due: September 1, 2019
Standard:
Progress Report Due: December 1, 2018
Progress Report Due: March 1, 2019
Progress Report Due: June 1, 2019
Progress Report Due: December 1, 2018
Progress Report Due: June 1, 2019
Progress Report Due: December 1, 2018
Progress Report Due: December 1, 2018
Progress Report Due: March 1, 2019
Progress Report Due: December 1, 2018
Progress Report Due: December 1, 2018
Standards:
Progress Report Due: June 1, 2019
Progress Report Due: March 1, 2019
Progress Report Due: March 1, 2019
Progress Report Due: September 1, 2019
Progress Report Due: December 1, 2019
Progress Report Due: June 1, 2019
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 2024
. A link to the cited Standard is provided.
Medical Assisting
Progress Report Due: August 1, 2019
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 2025
. Links to the cited Standards are provided.
Medical Assisting
Progress Report Due: May 1, 2019
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 2027
. Links to the cited Standards are provided.
Medical Assisting
Standards:
Progress Report Due: November 1, 2019
Standards:
Progress Report Due: November 1, 2019
Progress Report Due: November 1, 2020
Progress Report Due: November 1, 2020
Standards:
Progress Report Due: May 1, 2019
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.
Clinical Research
Diagnostic Medical Sonography
Emergency Medical Services-Paramedic
Lactation Consultant
Neurodiagnostic Technology
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
. Links to the cited Standards are provided.
Art Therapy
Standard:
Progress Report Due: March 21, 2019
Assistive Technology
Progress Report Due: December 14, 2018
Emergency Medical Services-Paramedic
Progress Report Due: June 1, 2019
Standards:
Progress Report Due: March 1, 2019
Standard:
Progress Report Due: December 1, 2018
Standards:
Progress Report Due: June 1, 2019
Standard:
Progress Report Due: December 1, 2018
Standard:
Progress Report Due: March 1, 2019
Standards:
Progress Report Due: December 1, 2018
Standard:
Progress Report Due: September 1, 2019
Standard:
Progress Report Due: March 1, 2019
Standard:
Progress Report Due: June 1, 2019
Standard:
Progress Report Due: December 1, 2018
Medical Assisting
Progress Report Due: August 1, 2020
Progress Report Due: August 1, 2019
Progress Report Due: November 1, 2020
The following program had a
transfer of sponsorship
approved, with a status of continuing accreditation, with the next comprehensive evaluation to occur
no later than 2024
. This action requires no progress report and was approved on the consent agenda.
Exercise Science
The following programs had a
transfer of sponsorship
approved, with a status of 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
The following program was 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. A link to the cited Standard is provided.
Emergency Medical Services-Paramedic
Standard:
Progress Report Due: December 1, 2018
CAAHEP voted to
withhold accreditation
from the following program, due to noncompliance with one or more Standards.
Programs are given the opportunity to appeal actions to withhold accreditation, so this action is not yet final. This list will be updated with the final action, once determined.
Links to the cited Standards are provided.
Emergency Medical Services-Paramedic
Standards:
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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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