Schools and Programmatic Accreditation
NAAHE Accreditation specializes in overseeing and accrediting single programs from state approved, regionally or nationally accredited schools, institutions and/or programs. Our programmatic accreditation process focuses on Phlebotomy, EKG, Patient Care Technician, Medical Assistant, Dental Assistant, Surgical Technician and Diagnostic Medical Sonography individual programs.
Our goal of accreditation is to ensure that education provided by institutions of higher education meets acceptable levels of quality.
NAAHE Accreditation is a voluntary non-governmental process by which our organization will grant your school, institution and/or programs time-limited recognition after verifying that your organization has met our standardized criteria. We develop evaluation criteria and conduct peer evaluations to assess whether or not those criteria for individual programs are met. Schools, institutions and/or programs that request an NAAHE evaluation and that meet NAAHE’s criteria are then “accredited” by NAAHE. Our Accreditation has ongoing requirements (such as applications, site visits) that need to be met to maintain the accreditation. Our focus of an accreditation’s assessment is on safe and effective processes and outcomes.
Important Things you should know about accreditation:
Although Accreditation is not mandatory most accredited institutions choose to also accredit their programs to build up their quality of education. Accreditation and certification is recognized nationwide as a symbol of quality that reflects an organization’s commitment to meeting certain performance standards.”
Accreditation is voluntary. However, sometimes the accreditation becomes so important that it can be considered quasi-mandatory. As an example, colleges and universities do not need to be accredited, but there are significant ramifications of not being, such as reduced or no funding, degrees not being accepted by other entities (such as certification boards), etc.
What’s the Difference between Credentialing, Licensure, Certification, and Accreditation?
Credentialing:
Process by which an agent qualified to do so grants formal recognition to and records such status of entities (individuals, organizations, processes, services, or products) meeting pre-determined and standardized criteria.
Licensure:
Mandatory process by which a governmental agency grants time-limited permission to an individual to engage in a given occupation after verifying that he or she has met predetermined and standardized criteria.
Professional Certification:
Voluntary process by which a nongovernmental entity grants a time-limited recognition to an individual after verifying that he or she has met predetermined and standardized criteria.
Add-on or Modular Certification:
Voluntary process by which a nongovernmental entity grants a time-limited recognition to a certified individual after verifying that he or she has met predetermined and standardized criteria in a specialty or sub-specialty area.
Curriculum-based Certificate (also called assessment-based certificates):
A comprehensive training program on a focused topic for which participants receive a certificate after completion of the coursework and successful demonstration of attaining the course learning objectives.
Accreditation:
Voluntary process by which a nongovernmental entity grants a time-limited recognition to an organization after verifying that it has met predetermined and standardized criteria.
THE ACCREDITATION PROCESS
Facilities seeking accreditation in one of the NAAHE programs must participate via a two-step process. First, a thorough review of the appropriate division Standards enables staff to be familiar with the published requirements and recommendations for the performance and interpretation of quality practices for the program. Staff members are encouraged to make any necessary changes to the operations of the facility to ensure, at a minimum, substantial compliance to the Standards before proceeding to completion of the application. The corresponding application allows participating facilities to answer questions and submit data and attachments to document compliance with the Standards. The submission of sample curriculum and their corresponding final reports is a heavily weighted component of the application process.