Accredited providers on why they recommend CARF

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• published: 10 Jun 2013
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http://www.carf.org CARF International accredited providers interviewed about their experiences with CARF and why they would recommend it to colleagues. "As a CEO, I'm always looking to provide the best services, the most efficient, cost effective for quality, and CARF means that. And my staff will live up to that. "I would highly recommend CARF accreditation to my colleagues. Again, it's a gold standard, it's that seal of approval, it's like having that credential after your name. People know what it took for you to get that credential, or to get that accreditation. And other payer sources also look at that as an organization that means something too. "We recommend CARF to our colleagues all the time, and we do so for a number of reasons. While it's a rigorous, thorough, accreditation experience it's also a very consultative accreditation experience. So, we think we've gotten a lot of help, so we recommend it all the time. "We've had an interesting story in that, we're really proud, we were the first worldwide, CARF-accredited, student counseling service. And that was an incredible process. And we actually looked for that at other accrediting bodies who do that type of work. And we chose CARF in an intentional way. That wasn't haphazard, it wasn't an accident. We were really thoughtful about it and CARF was very interested, I think, in developing standards. And we knew that a seal of approval, if you will, from CARF vs. some of the other accrediting organizations would be better. "What I do know is, is that that first survey was kind of instrumental in me being successful at the start of my tenure. "We were really changing in how we were doing business. We were going from a fee-for-service company to a managed-care company, essentially within a six-month period of time. The surveyors came in, and I met with them in the beginning, and it was really nice because I was used to some other accrediting organizations in my prior job. And it was very consultative, very collegial, and I was asked 'is there anything you would like us to do when we conduct the survey' and I said 'Yeah. I'm really new. This is a large organization, we've got 20-some sites, we've got a lot of people... Could you do an assessment for me and basically tell me where I need to pay attention, particularly right in the very beginning?' And they did a wonderful job of that. "I've always felt that there was really no choice to be made. For people who are in behavioral health care, I felt CARF really helps you establish the blueprint. And the whole consultative, collegial, nature of how it's done doesn't make it feel like a chore. It makes it feel like it's something you actually want to do instead of something you have to do." http://www.carf.org