Joint Accreditation: An Example of Collaboration
In this last of six videos, the collaborating accreditors discuss how the process of creating Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education was itself an example of interprofessional collaborative practice. Hear from Kate Regnier, MA, MBA, Executive Vice President of the ACCME, Dimitra Travlos, PharmD, BCPS, Assistant Executive Director & Director, Continuing Pharmacy Education Provider Accreditation of the ACPE, and Kathy Chappell, PhD, RN, Director, Accreditation Program at the ANCC.
>>REGNIER: So we often get asked how it is we came to collaborate around Joint Accreditation, and it reminds me of the fact that we really started meeting together and talking about our processes back in 1998. We were at a… A CEO of the ACCME was at a meeting with your Commission Chair and they both came to the realization that they were talking about very similar requirements and processes, and I think that sort of started the idea that we should maybe meet and talk and get to know each other, really sort of develop, originally, which was just a relationship.
>>CHAPPELL: Yeah, and look at where were our processes congruent, where were they different, and how could we improve, really, the overall experience of the provider?
>>TRAVLOS: So when we did, when we did come together at those meetings, we went through some exercises ourselves where we looked at our standards. It was the most simplest thing to do and we found out that there were a lot more similarities than there were differences, as was the perception in the world, I think, that we were all so different and that our standards really were built on just core educational principles. The only difference was the target audience. And when we even further looked into it, we even compared directories and we saw that at least 30% of our organizations were either doubly or triply accredited by us.
>>REGNIER: That's right.
>>CHAPPELL: Yes.
>>REGNIER: That's right. I remember that.
>>TRAVLOS: And so we thought, at the time, why not try a unified application?
>>REGNIER: That was the first thing that we sort of tried as an actual product, as an actual collaboration, was create a unified self-study report that an organization that was multiply accredited could complete and then send off to each of our three organizations to go through three separate processes. Now, in hindsight, it seems like that really wasn't a very good idea but it was a good step
>>CHAPPELL: It was a good step.
>>REGNIER: at trying to come up with something that would simplify the process.
>>CHAPPELL: And I think it's important to remember at the time that we were starting to talk about collaboration, the IOM... There was a bigger conversation about the importance of interprofessional collaboration in terms of patient safety and quality of care. And so with that collaboration, as we started to talk together as a group of accreditors and use that education process to become more collaborative in our space. We realized what an opportunity for us to develop that same process for our providers and incentivize them through our credentialing programs to do interprofessional education that improves team performance and patient outcomes, and really was the genesis of the interprofessional... of Joint Accreditation.
>>REGNIER: Yeah, we found ourselves
>>CHAPPELL: And where we are today.
>>REGNIER: We found ourselves doing interprofessional team accreditation. We were sort of walking the walk and how could we translate that into something that would really benefit our providers?
>>CHAPPELL: Right. And now we have a program that is innovative, that meets the needs of the health care system, that's international, and really
>>TRAVLOS: And benefits our providers.
>>CHAPPELL: And benefits our providers.
>>TRAVLOS: It's much more of a streamlined process.
>>CHAPPELL: Yep
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