Iac Accreditation Requirements

As an accreditation body, IAC Vascular Testing is committed to maintaining a program that aligns the changing needs of the vascular testing community and the public by influencing the quality of patient care. The IAC standards and guidelines for accreditation of vascular tests are the most important part of this commitment. The standards, which are composed of physicians and technologists from the ACI sponsoring organizations, are regularly reviewed by the Board of Directors and revised as necessary. The documents published below constitute the minimum standards for facilities wishing to acquire or maintain EPC accreditation. In addition to all listed standards, all facilities and employees of applicants must comply with federal, state, and local laws and regulations. In addition, facilities must also comply with laws related to the authorized field of activity, plant operation and billing requirements. Let`s put aside the history of accreditation, talk about what these accreditation bodies do and where you should go. If you are looking for cardiovascular accreditation and have multiple imaging services, ACI may be the way to go. IAC focuses mainly on the processes you have put in place – protocols, criteria, quality assurance – and on the cases submitted. If you have an ultrasound lab that offers a variety of ultrasound tests, ACR may be the best way to go. The CAB focuses primarily on staff equipment and experience, not on the quality of work.

AIUM only accredits general ultrasound laboratories and would not be the best choice if you are looking for cardiovascular accreditation and the minimum accreditation requirements are usually lower. We saw the creation and development of the Intersocietal Commission for Vascular Laboratory Accreditation (ICAVL), which eventually became the IAC to expand accreditation services to echo, CT, MR and many other imaging modalities. Over time, two organizations – the American College of Radiology (ACR) and the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM) – split from ICAVL to create accreditation for ultrasound and related imaging modalities. These accreditation bodies set standards for medical and technical staff experience, minimum accreditation requirements, equipment used, adherence to testing and diagnostic criteria, and correlation with other testing modalities, but they are all very different in their approach. But one of the challenges for accreditation bodies is getting everyone to agree on what these standards should look like, and over time, these standards have changed significantly from time to time. This applies to the number of vascular studies required for accreditation. When you consider the time and effort required to follow accreditation standards during the initial and renewal process of accreditation, it may be more cost-effective to outsource your accreditation tasks. NAVIX provides this support and answers questions about minimum requirements for accreditation. You want to find a company or individual with extensive experience with the process and vascular testing in general. Keep in mind that in order to get accredited, you may need to change some of the things you are currently doing or implement policies and programs like quality assurance that you may not have considered. Your technical and medical staff can focus on their main tasks – direct patient care – and you can have your application prepared by an expert, under your supervision, of course. This voluntary programme provides accreditation in the following areas: Applicant institutions should refer to the latest published version of the standards when applying for initial or new accreditation.

Guidelines are descriptions, examples or recommendations that address standards, but guidelines are not requirements. Guidelines can help interpret standards. Standards are described in regular scripts, but guidelines are in italics and narrative form. Following the development of the HRS Expert Consensus Statement on Laboratory Standards in Electrophysiology (EP): Processes, Protocols, Equipment, Personnel and Safety by HRS in 2013, the HRS Board of Directors conducted a comprehensive analysis of the accreditation market. As leaders in heart rhythm care, they approved an initiative to develop a voluntary accreditation program that provides a method for facilities performing cardiac electrophysiological procedures to document their commitment to quality patient care. The Board of Directors evaluated several options during a feasibility study and determined that the EPC has the experience and reputation to facilitate the development and management of the program. The accreditation process can cause great concern, but it can cause pure excitement after accreditation. By sponsoring and supporting leading vascular testing, surgical and imaging companies and organizations, accreditation bodies develop and enforce vascular laboratory standards. One of the difficulties encountered in accrediting organizations is to standardize the practice of each test modality and to clearly state what these standards are. It appears that the accreditation standards of one organization or another change every year, making it difficult for laboratory staff to keep up with the changes.

While the diversity of opinions and philosophies of the sponsoring organizations is a great way for each group to stimulate discussion and change, it can be difficult for labs to understand the language or intent behind the changes. That`s not to say the changes are so revolutionary that your lab will never keep up, but the changes are more scalable, but they can still be challenging. The IAC accredits international institutions in its diagnostic imaging programs (vascular testing, echocardiography, nuclear cardiology/PET/general nuclear medicine, MRI, diagnostic computed tomography and dental computed tomography) as well as its interventional programs (carotid stenting, vein treatment and management, cardiac electrophysiology and cardiovascular catheterization). NAVIX has an entire department dedicated to accreditation (we have more IAC accredited vascular laboratories than anyone else in the country), we reviewed the new IAC standards and noticed the new volume recommendations. The part we did not mention was the statement “in general” that preceded the recommendation. The goal is to operate a high-quality, high-volume laboratory. The IAC encourages laboratories with this objective in mind to apply for accreditation and would not necessarily exclude a laboratory from being accredited. If you have a question about volume, we recommend calling the IAC and getting clarification.

As part of the accreditation process, the IAC Vascular Trials Board of Directors tentatively approved the proposed standards, which were recently posted on the IAC Vascular Testing website for a 60-day public comment period. To learn more about IAC accreditation, visit www.intersocietal.org/programs. How do you track changes? In most labs, the technical and medical directors of your lab typically conduct studies, perform surgeries, or see patients – you know, they care about the company. It can be difficult to complete your core tasks and keep up with changes, especially if your lab is not currently in the accreditation renewal cycle. If you are ready to prepare the reaccreditation documents, there may have been changes that require a change of direction. The Intersocietal Accreditation Commission (IAC) provides guidance on minimum requirements for accreditation of vascular laboratories. Current IAC-Vascular Testing accreditation standards recommend that the minimum requirements for accreditation be at least five studies in each test area for each technical staff. For a laboratory with 15 full-time registered technologists performing both ultrasound and vascular testing, the ACI would require at least 75 studies per month in each test area, including intracranial (DBT) and visceral studies. This is a laboratory seeking accreditation in all areas of testing, which may seem intimidating to some. Each ACI accreditation program provides an accreditation checklist as a resource for applying for accreditation: Significant changes or additions are highlighted in current standards and include: Current proposed revisions to any of the above standards can be found on the ACI Public Comment Period page under intersocietal.org/comment-period when available. In addition, applicant institutions will be notified by email when revisions to the Standards and Guidelines are available for public comment.