Quality and Safety Standards Development

In 2014, David Nash, MD, Dean of the Jefferson College of Population Health, and CAHME representatives began discussions around the potential to create an accreditation approach for graduate programs in quality and safety. In 2016, CAHME’s President and CEO, Anthony Stanowski and Dr. Nash resurrected those discussions, which led to a summit in September 2017 of more than 20 leading academics in healthcare quality and safety at Thomas Jefferson University.

Market conditions in graduate programs in quality and safety accelerated quickly since 2014, leading to a cacophony of certification approaches to define quality and safety. Some “certification” approaches equate simply passing a test with the robust academic coursework offered by graduate programs in healthcare quality and safety. It was felt that this is a disservice to an industry that requires leaders with substantive knowledge and skills in quality improvement and patient safety.

Healthcare Quality and Safety Accreditation Basics Webinar

Given CAHME’s mission to “serve the public interest by advancing the quality of healthcare management education”, the CAHME brand allows for the development of a meaningful set of quality and safety accreditation standards. This requires a careful assessment of program curriculum and the readiness of program directors in these programs to participate in peer and practitioner development of standards of accreditation. The approach mirrors the establishment of CAHME nearly 50 years ago, when CAHME worked with academia and the industry to define the gold standard of healthcare management education.

A task force of academics from graduate programs in quality and safety, representatives from CAHME, with the input of leading associations in quality and safety, and healthcare practitioners worked to develop a set of standards and competencies that would lead toward the eventual accreditation of graduate programs in quality and safety.

In November 2018, the CAHME Board approved the first step, establishing standards for “Certification” of Quality and Safety programs. This interim step of “certification” has sunsetted in 2020 with the establishment of accreditation standards. Only founding programs are eligible to be considered “certified.”