CCHSA impressed by Springdale staff
Accrediting process a learning experience
Wednesday March 12, 2008 -- Deron Hamel
Springdale Country Manor’s March 6 assessment from the Canadian Council on Health Services Accreditation (CCHSA) proved to be an excellent opportunity to engage staff members at the Peterborough long-term care home, says administrator and director of care Maureen Imamovic.

From March 3-7, surveyors from the CCHSA visited 16 of OMNI’s 17 long-term care homes as part of the company’s corporate accreditation process. While each of OMNI’s homes has been independently accredited in the past, this is the first time the company has sought corporate accreditation.

The purpose of accreditation is to ensure that organizations continuously evaluate, improve and report their success and growth.

“What I was most pleased about was the participation from the frontline staff in the team meetings,” says Imamovic. “Even the surveyors commented to me after about how engaged they were and how impressed they were with the frontline staff.”

Karen Baker, a dietary aide at the home, characterized the process as a learning experience. Working in the kitchen, Baker says she doesn’t see a lot of other aspects to the home.

The assessment provided an opportunity for Baker and other staff members to ask the surveyors questions and learn more about processes.

“I found all the ideas they threw at us to be interesting and they were impressed with the ideas we already had,” she says.

Other key points of the assessment focused on multidisciplinary input into residents’ care, looking for frontline staff input into strategic planning and continuous quality improvement. Surveyors also looked at the ways this information was disseminated.

The independent accreditation model required six to eight months worth of work to prepare the documents. This model requires much less work, which Imamovic says eliminates administrators’ concerns about getting everything ready in time.

Springdale received an independent three-year accreditation from the CCHSA in October 2006.

“What we got from this outcome was interaction between us and the surveyors,” says Imamovic. “We got real explanation as to what the standards are that they were looking for.”

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