Media Relations

Author: WKU Herald Date: Friday, September 16th, 2011

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WKU Health Services is entering the final stages of a three-year accreditation process.

WKU began the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC) accreditation process in 2009 and expects to be completed by 2012.

"We're really excited," said Ann Mead, vice president for Finance and Administration. "It's an unusual and impressive accomplishment.

"Vicky Rosa, executive director of Health Services, said there are many different areas the center is currently looking at to finish up the process.

"We're going through all of our policies and procedures, looking at quality improvements and making sure we have the patients best interests in mind," she said.

Rosa said the big areas health services is examining are peer review and patient care.

According to the AAAHC website, accreditation is a voluntary process in which an institution measures the quality of their services and performance against nationally recognized standards.

The accreditation process involves self-assessment and review by the AAAHC surveyors.

The AAAHC accreditation certificate "is a symbol that an organization is committed to providing high-quality health care and that it has demonstrated that commitment by measuring up to the nationally-recognized standards of AAAHC high standards," according to the website.

WKU Health Services decided to begin this process based on the department's growth over the past several years.

Rosa, who joined WKU in July, said the accreditation process was just starting up when she got here.

As the person who now oversees the accreditation process, Rosa said she is very excited to see it through.

Rosa came from Butler University in Indianapolis, where she was director of Butler University Health Services for 13 years.

"I was quietly moving the center there towards accreditation, but we were very small, and there weren't a lot of people who could get in and help with the effort," she said.

Rosa said when she got the job at WKU and found out the university is also working towards accreditation, she was really pleased."People have really worked hard to make sure the patients are well taken care of," she said. "I think it's great."