Our Accreditation and why it's important

By Kyle Eaton

Quality Improvement Director

Meritan is dedicated to maintaining the highest level of quality service to our clients and community alike. One mechanism utilized by Meritan to ensure this highest level of quality is accreditation in accordance with the rigorous standards provided by the Council on Accreditation (COA). 

COA maintains standards in six administrative areas, four service delivery areas, and program-specific areas associated with individual programs within the accredited agency. COA outlines what exemplary service looks like across the entire organization and the steps necessary to achieve the highest possible level of service delivery. 

With Meritan’s diverse programs, finding an accreditation source that adequately addresses the nuances of each program is vital for sustained success and cohesion throughout the agency’s processes and procedures. Accreditation through COA meets the needs and expectations of each service, program, and function of the agency without the need to piecemeal an approach to accreditation. A framework is provided for each department and service which allows for growth, measures, and accountability across the organization. 

Meritan is also afforded the ability to link this framework with the expectations of our various managed care organizations, funders, and government regulations to remain compliant across the board. The rigorous, yet adaptable standards COA provides, makes for a cohesive and collaborative process. Meritan is able to view standards on service levels and remain current with the best practices being implemented across the industry. COA’s guidance is reflected from administrative tasks to direct client interactions, and the extensive reviews allow for the agency to remain steadfast in meeting the best possible standards for our clients. 

The standards from COA provide a blueprint for Meritan’s policies and procedures, stakeholder surveys, case record reviews, and the Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) process. By aligning COA’s standards to the CQI process, Meritan is able to establish a standard and uniformity for the programs to follow. This uniformity also enhances the COA benchmark reports viability to Meritan since the benchmarks are rooted in the standards and are measured across similar programs throughout the United States and Canada. 

Meritan is able to compare program data and performance to similarly-sized programs to gain greater knowledge of how the program is truly performing. By having a variety of standards spread across multiple disciplines, Meritan and COA can compare programs of similar scope with greater efficiency and accuracy, which only enhances the outcomes for Meritan. Furthermore, COA is constantly implementing changes to the standards based on expert opinions, program performance, and consumer feedback. And as such, Meritan is able to utilize the changes in the COA standards to continuously improve our service delivery and performance.