ANGIE LEVINE/Daily Bruin The Accreditation Association for
Ambulatory Health Care has accredited Ashe.
By Jeyling Chou
Daily Bruin Contributor
[email protected]
A banner recently added to the facade of the Arthur Ashe Student
Health & Wellness Center displays its first accreditation
ever.
The center, which scored in the 98th percentile by the
Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care, Inc., never
received an accreditation before because of delays caused by the
center’s 1995 relocation from its previous position near the
UCLA Medical Center.
Applications for accreditation were deferred until things had
settled down at the new facility, said Shannon Wong, administrative
analyst to the director of the Ashe Center.
With the completion of the application process this year, the
Ashe Center has been awarded three years of accreditation ““
the longest possible period granted by AAAHC.
“What the accreditation has done is validated what a good
job we’re doing,” Wong said.
This recognition comes under the shadow of numerous complaints
in January regarding a lack of prompt medical treatment and
inefficiency of the Student Health Insurance Policy.
Mark Miranda, an electrical engineering graduate student, had a
submission published in the Daily Bruin, where he criticized
SHIP’s “care system that creates multiple layers of
administrative work between patients and treatment”
(“Ashe Center, SHIP are painfully incompetent,”
Viewpoint, Jan. 24).
This unnecessary bureaucracy has “caused serious and
unacceptable delays in attaining medical treatment,” he
wrote.
The honor received is a recognition of excellent health care,
said Shelley Pearson, director of ancillary services for the Ashe
Center.
According to its Web site, the AAAHC develops and determines
standards for health care facilities and evaluates institutions
based on “essential to high quality patient care,” such
as clinical records and the rights of the patient.
Through voluntary application, more than 1,400 organizations are
accredited by the AAAHC.
Of the nine UC health centers, seven are accredited, including
UCLA.
“We wanted to really know how we were doing and have
outside professionals look at us,” Wong said.
Evaluation and assessment of the Ashe Center, Pearson said, is a
constant priority and the main motivation for accreditation.
“That’s what we really wanted ““ objective
feedback on what we might do and areas we can improve,” she
said.
Areas to be worked on, which were highlighted by the evaluation,
include the legibility of patient medical charts and increased
frequency in background checks on employees, Pearson said.
Close records are kept of comments and suggestions from
patients, Wong said. These records were made accessible to and
considered by the accreditors, she continued.
Criteria for accreditation seemed to focus more on the clinical
aspects and delivery of health care, she said.
The multi-step evaluation process included a self-assessment and
documentation of services the center provides.
In March of this year, two outside health care providers
representing the AAAHC conducted an on-site survey. The survey
included comprehensive assessments of various facilities and
services, such as pharmaceutical and laboratory services, health
education and wellness.
Over a two-day period, they reviewed patient charts, interviewed
doctors and patients, and looked over every aspect of the
organization, Wong said.
“As part of the process, they do look at patient
satisfaction with services,” she said.
The accreditors evaluated the Ashe Center on 400 standards
determined by AAAHC for the provision of high quality health
services, Pearson said.
Aside from an effort to confirm and better the institution
itself, Pearson believes accreditation of a college health center
also has a positive effect on the campus community.
“For the UCLA student, it means that they have a health
service that they can be extremely proud of,” Pearson said.
“For us, it validates the goals and objectives that we have
been aiming for for a long time.”