Virtual On-Site Initial Accreditation Site Visits Prove Successful and Popular

Last year, due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic, staff had to start thinking outside of the box in terms of how to conduct "normal business" in new ways and achieve expected results.

Over the past year, the ACS-AEI program successfully conducted four virtual on-site visits. One was a reaccreditation site visit, and three were initial accreditation site visits. We used Zoom as our virtual platform to connect two site visitors (surveyors) to the AEIs to review the applications and conduct a virtual site visit of the programs and their facilities.

During this period, we successfully trained and onboarded two non-surgeon administrative directors as site visitors who were partnered with surgeons to conduct the interviews of the AEIs. Together, they were responsible for collecting data and information to make accreditation recommendations to the Accreditation Review Committee (ARC) as to the level of compliance achieved with the Standards and Criteria. The four virtually surveyed AEIs said that the surgeon/administrative director combination has proven to be a strong surveyor team, and they saw many benefits associated with the virtual visit. The surveyors were also pleased with the results and did not feel like any components of the visit were compromised by the virtual format. The biggest downfall is not being able to see in person all of the outstanding work being done at our AEIs!

Moving forward, the ACS-AEI program will give AEIs the option of a virtual visit or an on-site visit with an assigned surveyor at the end of their five-year accreditation term. At year 10, an on-site visit by one surveyor will be required, regardless of whether the previous visit was virtual or in person. This pattern will continue every five years. Our goal is to provide a site visit model that is flexible and meets the needs of our AEIs without compromising the integrity of the accreditation standards. We believe this virtual approach is a way for AEIs to maximize their resources while still receiving the benefits of a site visit with a skilled ACS surveyor.