AAAHC Announces New Accreditation Program for Hospitals

The Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC) today announced the launch of a new accreditation program for hospitals. The program will be offered through the Accreditation Association for Hospital/Health Systems (AAHHS). AAHHS and AAAHC will have separate governing boards and function independently as operating entities of an umbrella organization, the Accreditation Association.

"AAAHC will operate independently of the hospital program to ensure that it will continue unhindered in what it does best, which is ambulatory health care accreditation," says John Burke, PhD, AAAHC's president and CEO, in a prepared statement.

"The movement to Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) and other recent trends have led to more health systems reabsorbing primary care physicians and free-standing ambulatory care settings back into the hospital," says Mr. Burke. "With our experience as the leader in ambulatory care accreditation, we saw an opportunity to improve patient care by offering a program that addresses both outpatient and inpatient hospital care and the ambulatory care offered by small hospital systems."

AAAHC, founded in 1979, has accredited more than 5,000 organizations nationwide. The AAHHS is expected to launch as a pilot program later this year.

Dan O'Connor