Behavioral Health Accreditation for Procrastinators

When behavioral health organizations apply for accreditation, it is to achieve credibility. It can be a requirement for licensing or contracting. To receive new approval from CARF, Council on Accreditation (COA), or Joint Commission, a behavioral health organization must operate for at least six months. They will get ready and prepare for the required survey, but they need to be prepared. Why?

Because behavioral health accreditation involves a process of organization, analysis, and communication, these practices take time, and many agencies wait until the last minute to put their operations in order. Therefore, they may pass the first time but have many implementation recommendations. Then with future surveys, they continue their procrastination into further surveys. The best approach for behavioral health accreditation with CARF, COA, or Joint Commission is to develop an ongoing preparation process. 

To avoid procrastination, the organization obtaining its first behavioral health accreditation with CARF, COA, or Joint Commission must start the groundwork immediately once they apply. Three areas of planning are necessary. First, they should complete all its policies and procedures as quickly as possible, as we’ve covered before. These procedures should respond to the behavioral health accreditation standards and show the agency’s actions. But these are not only for the surveyors to read but also for the employees to familiarize themselves with the documents. Second, they gather daily documents to analyze and summarize their findings. For example, if an agency writes critical incident reports, reports are completed during the past several months. These documents need to be reviewed by the leaders to determine if significant problems occurred and whether the organization needs to change its operations. And finally, employees need to have training in specific topics the behavioral health accreditation agency requires. Most of these are common training topics, such as suicide prevention or behavior management, but some are new such as corporate compliance or quality improvement. And the organization needs to document the training courses to reflect employee attendance. 

These activities can be done monthly from the first month and spaced over six months to avoid burnout. And working on them regularly allows the organization to live and breathe the behavioral health accreditation process with CARF, COA, or Joint Commission. It then does not become a chore (although it is extra work); it is a way for the organization to improve its operations and services. 

Praxes Behavioral Health provides behavioral health accreditation for CARF, COA, or Joint Commission for organizations nationwide. For more information about our services, please contact us.