Accreditation
Accreditation tells the world that your urgent care center practices with excellence and has met Joint Commission standards for QUALITY and SAFETY. UCAOA is proud to collaborate with The Joint Commission on accreditation program for urgent care.
The Joint Commission has recently published an Urgent Care Applicability Grid to help .gif)
centers determine which standards do and do not apply to their facilities. Click here to learn more and download the Grid.
For details and to get started, explore this section via the tab links above and links to the left or, visit www.jointcommission.org/urgentcare
Please NOTE: Accreditation and Certification are NOT the same credential.
History of Our Work with the Joint Commission on Standards
The Quality Standards Committee, led by Dr. Don Dillahunty, reviewed all of the Joint Commission's Ambulatory Care Standards and Elements of Peformance for their applicability in the urgent care setting.
The committee members then met with the Joint Commission Standards staff to resolve any applicability issues. Following that resolution, the Joint Commission issued an online version of the Applicabilty Grid for Urgent Care Centers on January 12, 2009 for your use in preparing for survey. It shows which standards do not apply to urgent care centers. NOTE: The Life Safety Chapter DOES NOT APPLY. The numbers in the Grid refer to standards numbers in the accreditaition manual, which you obtain from the Joint Commission. The Grid will be included in printed manuals in 2010.
REMEMBER: Even if a standard is NOT “grayed out” on the Applicability Grid, it may NOT apply to your center. Each organization needs to review each remaining standard as it apples to the services they provided. In many cases, additional standards will not apply as the center does not provide services relevant to the standard.
United Healthcare Rumor Clarification
Below is the current policy from the National Credentialing Center.
"Our policy for Urgent Care Centers indicates that a facility must be accredited by:
AOA, AAAHC, JCAHO or CMS or state agency certification. In the absence of any of these accreditation or certifications, UHC will perform an on site quality analysis of the facility to assure the minimum standards of NCQA, Medicare, Medicaid and our Credentialing Plan are met. A passing score of >85% is required to join the network."
