CHAP starts new accreditation guidelines
Home care agencies that are surveyed by the Community Health Accreditation Program (CHAP) of New York City now can expect surveys every three years instead of each year.
The Health Care Financing Administration in Baltimore has given CHAP approval to start its new 36-month site visit survey guidelines.
"The best agencies can go 36 months between site visits, and the medium agencies can go 24 months between visits," says Theresa S. Ayer, MS, RN, CNAA, president of CHAP.
Ayer says the new guidelines will give the program flexibility in surveying home care agencies. "It gives us more latitude in scheduling site visits."
Home care providers are very happy with the change, Ayer says. "For all the value we bring in annual visits, it’s still an interruption to their daily activities and a little nerve racking."
The new cycle requires agencies to have passed all CHAP quality standards for the previous three-year period and to have no record of founded complaints since the last site visit. Home care agencies that are being accredited for the first time will continue to receive annual site visits for the first three years.
These changes will affect all CHAP-accredited organizations, and they will affect the Medicare certification of home health agencies.
For more information on CHAP and the changes, contact the organization by calling (212) 989-9393, Ext. 242, or by visiting the CHAP Web site at http://www.chapinc.org.
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