Health Center undergoes reacreditation process
Students normally keep the Student Health Center busy, but on Monday and Tuesday, a surveyor had the entire staff on its toes as the center sought reaccreditation.
The Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care, Inc., is surveying the center to determine if it meets defined national health care standards.
The Student Health Center last was accredited in 1999, and the center’s policies and practices have come under AAAHC scrutiny as the center vies for another reaccreditation.
David Rousmaniere, business manager for the Student Health Center, said university health care centers are not required to be certified by an accrediting organization, but LSU’s Student Health Center chose to be in order to meet defined national standards.
Assistant Vice Chancellor of the Student Health Center Arthur Goulas initiated the process to get the center accredited for the first time in 1989.
“It has helped us become a better organization and has helped the University,” Goulas said.
Rousmaniere said quality improvement for the center is a continuing process and reviewing existing policies is a common practice in the medical industry as a whole.
“We wanted to demonstrate to our clientele that we provide quality care equal to that of other health care organizations,” Rousmaniere said.
The AAAHC will review all of the Student Health Center’s policies, ranging from pharmaceutical practices to how the center keeps medical records.
Student Health Center committees for nursing, medical staff, mental health and infection control regularly meet to review those policies and make sure they are working correctly.
Those committees also do studies that can lead to policy changes. The center has studied areas such as asthma in students and treatment plans, the use of antibiotics, patient flow in the Mental Health Center and how the staff handles soap dispensers related to infection control.
The center collects policies and studies for three years and when the accreditation surveyor comes to the center, he or she reviews those policies.
The surveyor also reviews processes of patient charting, the continuing education of certified medical personnel and internal staff training.
“Our staff knew we were providing quality services before we entered the process, but complying with the health care standards of an accrediting organization demonstrates this to our clientele and the public,” Rousmaniere said.
This week, the surveyor met with the staff and toured the facility. Yesterday, the surveyor gave the Health Center staff an idea of his findings. He then will make a recommendation to the accreditation board about reaccreditation. The center will know the results and findings in about six weeks.
Rousmaniere said student satisfaction with the health center is high, and he believes accreditation contributes to that. In exit surveys, graduating seniors have named the center as first or second in their satisfaction with student services for the past 10 years. The center has been second only to the Rec Center or REGGIE, according to Rousmaniere.
The maximum accreditation awarded by the AAAHC is three years. The center has achieved this maximum every year of accreditation, and the staff is hopeful and confident they will be reaccredited this year.
Goulas said the surveyor’s input is helpful in determining how LSU’s Student Health Center compares to those at other universities.
“It’s good to have someone from an outside organization to compare us to written standards and to other schools,” Goulas said.
Kayla Gagnet