CoAEMSP Board Member Doug York, NRP, PS, was recognized for his service to the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP) as a Board Member where he served for six years.

Doug was one of three Board Members representing the Committees on Accreditation (of which there are 25) on the CAAHEP Board. As a Commissioner for the CoAEMSP to CAAHEP, he was eligible to seek a board election as the CoAEMSP representative.

"Doug York’s role with CAAHEP has provided a great benefit to all the members of the CoAEMSP Board of Directors for many years, always being there to provide our Board with up-to-date information, and sharing lessons learned from other CoA’s. Doug remains a strong advocate for accreditation of health professions which has led to up-to- date Standards and improvements for health professions education."

Paul Berlin, MS, NRP, CoAEMSP Chair

"Doug has been a tremendous asset representing the Committees on Accreditation on the CAAHEP Board of Directors throughout his tenure. He has demonstrated that Paramedic educators provide a vital perspective and a valuable voice in the accreditation process of allied health professionals across 32 health disciplines. He served at a time of exponential growth in the accreditation of Paramedic educational programs, and we are eternally grateful for his dedication and service to CAAHEP."

George W Hatch, Jr, EdD, LP, CoAEMSP Executive Director

"Doug's involvement in CAAHEP began when he was named the Commissioner for NAEMT in 2007. He served in that role until he was elected to the CAAHEP Board of Directors in April 2014. During his six years on the Board, he said 'yes' to everything that was asked of him. In addition to serving on the Recommendations Review Committee (an extremely hard-working Committee!), Doug agreed to serve as a liaison to two of our Committees on Accreditation. In that role, he was instrumental in helping one of our newest Committees (Assistive Technology) get up and running in record time. He also has volunteered his expertise as a site visitor, doing site visitor training seminars with Jennifer Anderson Warwick. Doug's commitment to accreditation in general and CAAHEP, in particular, has been invaluable to us - and his bad jokes are legendary!"

Kathy Megivern, JD, CAE, CAAHEP Executive Director

"The words 'THANK YOU' don’t begin to express the deep appreciation the CAAHEP Family has for Doug York’s unwavering commitment to professional accreditation. Doug never sought the spotlight, unless it was to share one of his canny jokes that everyone loved at the beginning of a meeting or when we all needed a mental break. However, Doug was always working feverishly in the background through committees and task forces creating new synergies and pathways forward. In Board meetings, Doug did not often speak, but when he did you knew it was time to listen. His words were always constructive and forward-thinking. We all need more 'Dougs.' Thank you, Doug, for all you’ve done for the CAAHEP Family."

Glen Mayhew DHSc, NRP, CAAHEP President

Congratulations to Doug; we are honored and proud to have him on our Board, as well as for the contributions he has made while on the CAAHEP Board.

Getting Started: An Action Plan for CAAHEP Accreditation

Often the hardest part of any project is organizing a plan to get started. The action plan the CoAEMSP has developed breaks the activities into phases and identifies the activity and associated resources, such as the location on the CoAEMSP website that will provide the necessary information. We will share best practices for developing and implementing an action plan for your program’s next comprehensive review, from writing the self-study report through to responding to the site visit findings.

Pitfalls of Tracking Student Progress

One of the more important requirements of accreditation is a program's ability to track and document student progress throughout the program. This session will reveal pitfalls that have been discovered during the accreditation process and is designed to promote discussion on how to address the identified concerns and identify solutions that could be implemented by programs to improve their tracking.

Access the recorded webinars here

Get a complete list of upcoming webinars here .

July 23: How to Use the Executive Analysis (EA)

Ever wondered what the best steps are after you receive the Executive Analysis (EA) for the program’s self-study report? After the initial shock that your self-study report wasn’t as perfect as you thought it’s time to look at the EA as a tool that can make the site visit go from stressful to just another visit by friends. The CoAEMSP returns the EA to the program as a tool to allow the program time to correct areas of concern identified in the self-study report, in order to improve the overall outcome of the accreditation process.

Join us for an informative webinar that addresses the best ways to put the Executive Analysis to work for you. We will look at how the EA is developed and talk about what we, the Reader, see in the self-study report. We will look at the more common areas of concern; and just maybe we’ll take some of the blame for simply not understanding your answers to the questions we asked. In the end, we hope you will see the EA as a tool to improve the ease of your site visit and make your journey through the accreditation process as smooth as possible.

July 30: How to Use the Interpretations

The CoAEMSP has adopted through policy interpretations of the CAAHEP Standards and Guidelines for the Accreditation of Educational Programs in the Emergency Medical Services Professions. The purpose of the interpretations is to assist Paramedic educational programs in understanding and maintaining compliance with the new CAAHEP Standards. The interpretations include examples of how programs may choose to demonstrate compliance with each standard. We will share best practices on how your program can use the interpretations to its advantage.

Long-range planning is necessary to ensure program success and longevity. Programs use a variety of assessment and reporting tools. An important part of long-range planning is collating the information collected and developing actions as needed. The CoAEMSP has developed a tool to provide a framework for review, discussion, and implementation.

This tool can be found on the CoAEMSP website in the Resource Library, Instruments & Forms section.

Download the Long-Range Planning Guide here

Contact: Heather Parker, heather@coaemp.org , 214-703-8445, x116

All program directors for the CoAEMSP Letter of Review Programs and the CAAHEP Accredited Programs, along with each of the 14 sponsors of CoAEMSP, received their annual fee invoices from the email address: heather@coaemsp.org.

You are encouraged to pay the annual fee by ACH or the View and Pay Invoice option in the email. (Credit cards are not accepted.)

The fee was due July 1, 2020.

If you have questions about the invoice or other accounting related items, please contact Heather Parker ( heather@coaemp.org, 214-703-8445, x116).

Contact: Heather Parker, heather@coaemsp.org or 214-703-8445, x116

In an effort to save time, streamline processes, reduce data entry, and eliminate additional processing fees, the CoAEMSP is encouraging all programs to pay invoices via Automated Clearing House (ACH).

ACH payments are electronic payments that transfer funds directly from a checking account to the payee. Instead of writing out and mailing a paper check, the money moves automatically.

You may pay invoices by ACH or the View and Pay Invoice option that will appear in the email with the invoice. Credit cards are not accepted. The CoAEMSP will accept checks; however, know that we are moving toward requiring all payments to be made via ACH or View and Pay.

All programs selecting to pay by ACH should email a payment advice to heather@coaemsp.org. (A payment advice provides the details on a payment and provides advance notice to the recipient.)

The advantages of paying via ACH or the View and Pay Invoice are:

•  pay directly through the invoice

•  secure environment

•  payment processes in 3 days instead of 3 weeks (checks)

•  automatically applies to the invoice (less data entry errors)

Below is an example of the ACH Payment Advice, which provides the details on a payment and provides advance notice to the recipient.

Thank you for helping to make the payment process more efficient.

As you are aware, the CoAEMSP 2018 Annual Report was originally due March 30, 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, CoAEMSP extended the due date for the Annual Report twice from the original due date of March 30, 2020. The first extended due date was June 30, 2020.  The second and final extended due date is July 31, 2020. Multiple email reminders have been sent to the programs who have not submitted yet.

The data required to complete the report relates to students who graduated in 2018, so all documentation should be complete. All questions need to be answered, and all blanks need to be filled in. A bright yellow box under your name at the bottom of the report indicates you have not answered all questions. This box will disappear once the report is completed as directed.  DO NOT submit an incomplete report as it will not be accepted!

The purpose of the Annual Report is to provide data on credentialing exams, retention, positive job placement, and results of graduate and employer surveys and to benchmark against established metrics.

The Council on Higher Education Accreditation requires that the results of these outcome measures are published to be available to the public and potential students. CoAEMSP requires publishing the outcomes on the sponsor website on the Paramedic program page.

All completed CoAEMSP 2018 Annual Reports are due no later than July 31, 2020. Failure to submit the 2018 Annual Report by the July 31, 2020 due date may result in CoAEMSP recommending to CAAHEP the program be placed on Administrative Probation which could lead to Withdrawal of Accreditation.

Programs are required to evaluate their services in a variety of ways, obtaining input from multiple sources. One important component in the evaluation of the appropriateness and effectiveness of the program resources. The CoAEMSP Resource Assessment Matrix (RAM) is required to be completed annually based on the calendar year. Two standard tools are provided, and required, by the CoAEMSP: the Program Resource Survey - Students, and the Program Resource Survey -Program Personnel. This latter form is used to survey the program faculty, the Medical Director, and the Advisory Committee members. One common omission by programs is obtaining feedback from the Advisory Committee as an important part of the Program Personnel survey process.

Programs can add additional questions specific to their program or circumstances but must include the questions required by CoAEMSP on each survey. Ten components are evaluated: program faculty, Medical Director, support personnel, curriculum, financial resources, facilities, hospital and clinical resources, capstone field internship resources, learning resources, and physician interaction. The categories are the same on both versions of the tool ( Student and Personnel). However, the individual questions vary slightly based on the different perspectives of the two respondent groups.

Once all surveys have been completed and collected during the calendar year, the program must complete the Resource Assessment Matrix or RAM. The two surveys and the Excel tool for completing the RAM are posted on the CoAEMSP website here. The scoring system on the surveys is simple: 'yes' or 'no' or 'not applicable.' The premise regarding resources: a program either has or does not have the required resources for students to successfully complete the various education components. There is also a comment box for each of the ten categories. The final overall assessment of resources by the participant is ‘not sufficient, marginal, or sufficient’.

The RAM Excel workbook includes the following tabs: Instructions, PRS Students, PRS Personnel, and the RAM. The instructions provide details on completing the process.  Two spreadsheets provide a convenient means for entering student and personnel data. As the survey responses are entered the spreadsheet automatically calculates the cumulative percentages for each question. The final percentage is also calculated for each of the ten components. The next step is to enter the percentage for each component into column ‘E’ on the RAM tab. If the percentage for a section is less than 80%, the program must enter an analysis and action plan in columns ‘E’ and ‘F’. Even if the category percentage is greater than 80%, however, do not ignore individual questions that did not meet the threshold. In each of the ten component fields, results are tabulated and entered separately for student and personnel responses.

The RAM is completed annually, and programs must have a plan to survey students from all cohorts, faculty, the Medical Director, and the Advisory Committee.

Completing the RAM at year end is more than an exercise in data collection. Once the results have been tallied, the next important step is review and discussion of the results with the faculty, administration, Medical Director, and Advisory Committee. The RAM is one building block in the program assessment and improvement process and should aid in long-range planning and continuous quality improvement.

The RAM from the most recent three years is now required to be submitted as part of the self-study in the accreditation process.

The CoAEMSP continues to develop and revise tools to assist programs to document activities and provide the necessary ‘evidence’ to satisfy elements in the self-study report, provide verification for the site visitors, and address requirements when responding to letters of review or progress reports.

One area that results in frequent citations is inadequate documentation of the Advisory Committee composition and activities. A CoAEMSP template was developed to guide the agenda, specify the required communities of interest, and record the discussion. Using the template is not mandated, but it is strongly recommended.

The Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes Form template can be found in the Resource Library, in the Instruments & Forms section.

Download the template here

The Advisory Committee Meeting Agenda was developed to better assist programs to address all the necessary elements. In addition, an Advisory Committee Roster form is available that allows the program to detail all members, the communities of interest represented, and the agency or organization represented.

The Advisory Committee Roster Form can be found in the Resource Library, in the Instruments & Forms section.

Download the Form here.

KEY POINTS TO REMEMBER

In addition to providing feedback to the Program, a well-designed Advisory Committee can strengthen relationships in the community and assist in identifying educational opportunities outside the Program walls.

For a current list of LoR and accredited programs, visit www.caahep.org.