Accreditation 2022: GSS Head Start

How can 4 years pass so quickly? But it has and that means GSS is up for its 4-year accreditation review next June…

What does that mean? How do we prepare? First, relax. There are reasons for GSS staff to feel fairly comfortable about an accreditation review.

What does accreditation mean and why is it important?

Being accredited tells our clients, partners, community, and funders that GSS services are organized and delivered to best practice standards. That may sound abstract but very practical standards like these shape our work experience (and our procedure manuals): Medication Administration, Case Management, Infection Prevention and Control, Leadership and Governance.

Of note: Ensuring that services meet established, best practice standards through accreditation is so important that, in August, Alberta Health Services announced all contracted treatment providers are expected “to be accredited by an approved accreditation organization within 48 months (by October 2024).”

We can relax because accreditation has been part of GSS since 2009.

What does accreditation review involve and how will we prepare?

The actual accreditation review will happen in June, 2022. Two surveyors will be on site for three days talking to our board, leaders, staff and clients, and reviewing files and visiting sites – basically, seeing how we do our daily work.

At the program level, the main type of preparation will be reviewing the most important standards, called ‘Required Organizational Procedures’ (ROPs). Staff who’ve been through accreditation before will recognize that term. The good news is that accreditation has been part of GSS for over a decade, so the ROPS are part of our work life. Remember the annual hand hygiene demos at GSMs? And the regular fire and emergency drills, and falls and suicide prevention processes in your programs? Those are all ROPs in action.

And there’s more good news about ROP reviews and the 2022 survey. In 2018,  an Accreditation Prep Committee was in place with staff reps from each program. That power team created a review package for 12 key ROPS that apply to GSS. And those high quality ROP packages can be used again because standards haven’t changed!

The review packages will start going out in November as preparation ramps up. In the meantime, when you see the following staff from the 2018 Accreditation Prep Committee, pass on a big thanks for helping to make the 2022 accreditation preparation process (somewhat) more relaxed for us all:

Special thanks to Shonna Mitchell & Bev Pretty at Balwin, Tammy Boudreau & Kim Riczu at CAT, Jonelle Crooks at Housing First, Paulina Kalinowski at MST, and Joanita Udinyiwe at SSPSH.