Need For Accreditation Research Articles

Reply to Letter to the Editor: Critically Assessing the Haiti Earthquake Response and the Barriers to Quality Orthopaedic Care

We thank Dr. Moyad for his constructive criticism and service to the Haitian people. His positive experience providing care in the wake of this natural disaster is testament to the power of volunteerism in resource-poor countries. After the earthquake, many medical and surgical volunteers sacrificed to provide the highest quality care to disaster casualties. These stories and tremendous worldwide response should give all of us hope regarding our international capacity for relief. Nevertheless, the intention of the publication was to provide our readership with a perspective that has remained largely elusive. Although many publications regarding the orthopaedic response to the Haiti earthquake document the quantity of procedures performed and the personal stories of the volunteers, there are few systematic documentations of the failures. Our systematic method of data collection and analysis has many weaknesses highlighted in the publication, but it provides an important window into potential ways in which we can improve and devise measures of disaster care. Many of the anecdotes associated with poor-quality care, we believe, were preventable with training. From our interviews, for example, we discovered that ill-prepared physicians such as ophthalmologists and pediatricians were performing orthopaedic surgeries without adequate training. In addition, to address Dr. Moyad’s specific point regarding fasciotomies, there is documentation to suggest that this procedure should be reconsidered in the acute muscle-crush compartment syndromes commonly found in earthquake zones. The muscle in these limbs usually is already dead and in these resource-poor settings, when damage-control orthopaedics is necessary, there is limited time for repeated operations that risk limb-threatening infection [2]. Although we will never know the specific nature of every injury treated, there clearly is room for debate and greater need for better documentation and further study of disaster response. A substantial report from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) discusses the overall lack of organization and chaotic pattern of the relief effort [1]. The foreword of the report states that the response, “included a number of wholly unprepared or even incompetent health actors who bypassed the overburdened coordination mechanisms”. For these reasons, the PAHO report highlights the need for accreditation and training in disaster response, a matter about which we disagree with Dr. Moyad. Regardless of the outcome, training courses provide volunteers with the opportunity to share stories, exchange knowledge, build expert opinion, and prepare for a variety of patient-care possibilities. We hope that formal training courses are cultivated to continue to improve the care provided to patients most in need.

Repository Fees for Archaeological Collections

For more than 30 years, an increasing number of repositories across the US charge fees for curatorial services when archaeological collections are deposited with them. These fees are instituted to meet the costs of providing high-quality collections care and upholding professional curatorial standards. An informal yet systematic study of repository fees was performed in 1997/98, 2002 and, most recently, in 2007/08 to examine these charges. This article provides current information on curation fee structures across the US, criteria used to establish those fees, and the variability of fees. Significant trends and issues evident over the last ten years and relevant to both the archaeological and curatorial communities are discussed. These include the costs of the archaeological associated records, the impact of curation costs on archaeological fieldwork, the lack of curation space, and the possible need for accreditation or certification of repositories that charge fees for curation.

Pharmacy under the spotlight: New Zealand pharmacists' perceptions of current and future roles and the need for accreditation

The aim was to determine New Zealand pharmacists' views on the range of services outlined in the Ten Year Vision for Pharmacists document and the need for accreditation to provide these services. A national postal survey of practising pharmacists registered with the Pharmacy Council of New Zealand (n = 1892) was carried out, with two follow-ups. The response rate was 51.8% (n = 980 usable surveys). Findings indicated that the majority of pharmacists believe they should continue to undertake traditional clinical and technical roles (median 98.5%, range 92.7-99.3%). Less than one-third of respondents felt these activities required pharmacists to be accredited. A lower proportion, but still the majority, of respondents thought that pharmacy should undertake selected enhanced or collaborative roles (median 74.85%, range 64-92.5%). However, there was a greater emphasis on accreditation for these roles, with more than two-thirds of respondents suggesting a need for accreditation. There is a high level of support for the retention of current clinical and technical roles. A lack of need for additional accreditation suggests that pharmacists believe their training is adequate. There is a positive, but more tempered view regarding enhanced or collaborative services. There is recognition of a greater need for accreditation for enhanced and collaborative services. This suggests a cautious optimism about new services and a perceived need for pharmacists to learn more about these programmes.

Benchmarking the First Year Accounting Unit: Evidence from Australia

Normal 0 false false false EN-AU X-NONE X-NONE This paper compares some key organisational attributes of three accounting schools located at Australian universities. In addition, the content, structure and presentation of the first-year accounting unit is examined with a view to identifying best practices. Three Australian universities – one each from Western Australia, Victoria and New South Wales collaborated on this project. The heads of the respective schools supplied relevant data for school comparison purposes and a workshop meeting between the first year accounting unit co-ordinators provided data for a content analysis of their subject guides. The three schools had similar issues to manage. They include an aging staff profile, high use of casual academic staff and large student numbers across different campuses. Unsurprisingly, given the need for accreditation from professional accounting bodies, the content of the courses was very similar. However, there were significant differences in delivery and assessment, with potential implications for subject quality and resource use. The size and characteristics of the three universities investigated for this project do not reflect the profile of all accounting schools in Australia. The results of this benchmarking comparison has prompted managers to be aware of several critical issues identified to take appropriate action to remedy them. The authors are unaware of any previous benchmarking study comparing accounting schools at Australian universities and the findings can lead to better teaching and learning outcomes for first year accounting students.   Keywords :   Benchmarking, Universities, Accounting courses JEL classifications : M41, M40 and M49

The new medical schools in Chile and their influence on the medical scenario

There is concern about the possible consequences caused by the proliferation of private Medical Schools in Chile. Most of these schools have consolidated as health professional training centers, but its presence is changing the scenario of public health and medical profession. The most important consequence is the increase in the number of physicians that will occur, that may exceed the demand of the Chilean population and generate medical unemployment or emigration. There is also concern about the quality of the training process and the preparation and experience of teachers, that derives in the need for accreditation of medical schools. Private Universities are aware of these problems and are working on them. The struggle for clinical fields in the Public Health System has been regulated by an administrative norm of the Ministry of Health.

Las nuevas escuelas de medicina en el panorama médico actual

There is concern about the possible consequences caused by the proliferation of private Medical Schools in Chile. Most of these schools have consolidated as health professional training centers, but its presence is changing the scenario of public health and medical profession. The most important consequence is the increase in the number of physicians that will occur, that may exceed the demand of the Chilean population and generate medical unemployment or emigration. There is also concern about the quality of the training process and the preparation and experience of teachers, that derives in the need for accreditation of medical schools. Private Universities are aware of these problems and are working on them. The struggle for clinical fields in the Public Health System has been regulated by an administrative norm of the Ministry of Health.

Usage of the claim database of national health insurance programme for analysis of cisapride‐erythromycin co‐medication in Taiwan

This study aimed to use the National Health Insurance Research Database, Taiwan for risk analysis of concomitant use of cisapride and erythromycin. The sample consisted of subjects identified in the Outpatient Sampling Database (OSD) and Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2000 (LHID 2000), derived from the original claim data of the National Health Insurance Research Database, Taiwan. According to the LHID 2000, a total of 464 individuals experienced 685 episodes of cisapride-erythromycin co-medication prescribed by 295 physicians, revealing a prevalence of 4.5% concomitant use, with higher prevalence in clinics (9.2%) than in other medical institutes (3.7-5.4%). Among the co-medication episodes, 81.9% and 61.2% were prescribed from the same health institutes and by the same physicians, respectively. No medical record of cardiac arrhythmias was found among these patients in 2001 and 2002, probably due to the fact that 78.9% of the 464 individuals were under age 16, 84.0% had short exposure duration (1-4 days) and 98.0% of the episodes were prescribed with a cisapride dose of less than 0.8 mg/kg/day. Findings from this study suggest that there exists an urgent need for accreditation in terms of pharmacovigilance of clinical sites and their practicing physicians for the prevention of irrational concomitant prescription in Taiwan. Our findings also indicate that it is necessary to investigate other possible conditions of potentially dangerous co-medication in Taiwan and other developing countries.

Professional accreditation of occupational therapy educational programs: A bright or embattled future?

As Australia introduces a new system of individual accreditation through the program for individual accreditation of occupational therapists, there is a need to also consider the place and scope of specialised educational program accreditation in the maintenance of professional standards. The present article reviews issues relating to educational program accreditation including: the need for accreditation and its tradition in occupational therapy; types of accreditation and stakeholders involved; accreditation processes; and evidence of effectiveness. It suggests that professional association demands of programs and the accreditation processes used for audit and inspection must be relevant and reasonable in order to be considered credible and necessary by all stakeholders. Standards and professional accreditation processes that do not demonstrate that they are relevant and reasonable will face an embattled future. Those that do provide mechanisms for true quality improvement through relevant, well‐conceived processes should have a bright future in a world seeking benchmarks for quality in professional preparation programs.

¿Por qué asegurar la calidad?

This paper explains the basic reasons underlying the need for accreditation for higher education institutions in Chile. In addition, it holds that quality assurance is the most efficient accreditation method, backed by emerging globalization –that calls for higher competition standards– and that, due to the pressure exerted by citizens, it is increasingly incorporated to this method of education. Finally, it analyzes the most significant features of the bill establishing a National Quality Assurance System and the progress it is making in the legislature

Knowledge-based systems for marking professional IT skills examinations

As the use of Information Technology (IT) increases, so does the need for accreditation of IT skills. Of the many Computer-Based Assessment (CBA) systems which claim to assess such skills, most are based on approaches such as multiple choice questions or atomic functions tests within controlled environments. In contrast, most professional qualifications in the UK, assessed by human examiners, focus on the output of authentic skills, that is, complete documents produced during realistic interactions with industry standard software. In order to automate the assessment of such examinations the expertise and knowledge of human examiners must be represented and the authentic nature of the assessment tasks retained. This paper describes a suite of Knowledge-based CBA systems for IT Skills, developed at the University of East Anglia, which have been deployed by a leading UK examination body to replace human markers for several of its flagship IT awards.

JCAHO Accreditation

Many hospital leaders question the need for accreditation from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). Unhappy with the JCAHO and its accreditation process, hospital executives are looking at alternatives. State and federal governments, managed care organizations and hospitals monitoring themselves all have the potential to replace accreditation. This article looks at these alternatives from a nursing perspective.

Accreditation of Products and Services for the Water Industry

AbstractThis paper describes the programme of work being undertaken in a number of European organizations supported by the European Commission, which is designed to achieve the Single European Market. In particular, an explanation is provided on the organization of European standards, concentrating on the work affecting the water cycle. Reference is made to the public procurement, utilities and construction products Directives, and the need for accreditation using certification and testing. Also, an explanation is provided of the committee structure being established to facilitate mutual recognition of certification and test procedures to satisfy both regulatory and voluntary requirements of products and services.