HQAA Reaches 10 Year Milestone

WATERLOO, IOWA – June 10, 2015 – Healthcare Quality Association on Accreditation® (HQAA) is celebrating its 10th anniversary and will kick off the celebration in mid-June at the VGM Heartland Conference in Waterloo, where they first launched in 2005. They are launching a new, more modern look to their brand that symbolizes their exciting future ahead.

Founded by CEO, Mary Nicholas, HQAA provides day-to-day guidance and a step-by-step interactive accreditation process for home medical equipment (HME) and durable medical equipment (DME) companies.

“The mission of HQAA is to turn the overwhelmingly complex process into a clear route to accreditation for our customers,” says Nicholas. “Everyone benefits when you keep quality continuous with HME and DME accreditation and HQAA’s standards help you do just that.”

For 10 years, HQAA has worked to accredit and support DMEPOS, pharmacy, infusion, 3rd party billing and ventilator unit customers. HQAA is set apart from the competition by making their web-based process intuitive, helpful and individualized. Each customer is assigned an accreditation coach to insure that no one walks through the process alone. Their unique, bite-size approach allows customers to create their policy and procedure manual in small steps. This makes the process less complex and more efficient. Once accredited, customers are provided with tools to ensure that they stay informed about changes in requirements, plus a system to keep materials and records updated.

The association upholds its reputation of providing customers with the tools they need to get through the accreditation process. Customers have shared that they appreciate the personalized coaching, the ability to work through the process at their own pace and time and the professionalism and collaborative, educational approach of the surveyors.

“We are so thrilled to be celebrating our 10th anniversary,” says Nicholas. “We are proud of our organization and the way we work to provide customer satisfaction and we plan to continue that for many years to come.”

For more information about HQAA and their 10th anniversary festivities, contact Mary.Nicholas@HQAA.org or visit info.HQAA.org.

Healthcare Quality Association on Accreditation (HQAA) is an HME accreditation agency that is designed for maximum efficiency and has a pre-eminent proven record of success in combining proprietary software and personal coaching to simplify the accreditation experience. HQAA was developed by CEO Mary Nicholas, who sought a more simplified accreditation process following the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003.

HQAA HIRES PHARMACY SPECIALIST TO EXPAND INFUSION ACCREDITATION PROGRAM

WATERLOO, IOWA (October 4, 2012) – Willis C. Triplett, PharmD, has accepted a contract to be the pharmacy specialist for HQAA (Healthcare Quality Association on Accreditation).

He will oversee HQAA’s infusion home IV compounding and pharmacy programs, which continue to grow.

“I look forward to sharing the value of the HQAA accreditation product with the infusion industry and counterparts,” said Triplett. “The method that HQAA uses to support accreditation within an organization is unlike any other. It can benefit both the infusion pharmacy owner and organization.”

Triplett has extensive experience in all aspects of home infusion therapy as an owner, senior leader and consultant.

"Willis’s knowledge in home infusion therapy-related areas blends fully with the philosophy and methodology of the HQAA process and practice,” said Mary Nicholas, President/CEO, HQAA.

That knowledge includes accreditation, USP Standard 797, healthcare process improvement with CQI techniques, policy and procedure development, and business intelligence and dashboarding.

HQAA is a CMS-deemed authority accreditation body for DMEPOS. It’s the only accreditation organization to provide coaches to review standards, an online workroom to efficiently manage the process, and a service to maintain high quality standards between accreditation programs.

HQAA offers accreditation programs for HME/DME, infusion/home IV compounding, pharmacies (limited and full-line DME), physician practice, and facility-based ventilator unit providers, as well as third-party billing organizations.

For more information on HQAA infusion accreditation, contact Willis C. Triplett at 866-909-4722. For more information about HQAA, visit HQAA.org.

by: Liz Beaulieu (HME News)

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

WATERLOO, Iowa – In an economy where, according to the Small Business Administration, two-thirds of businesses don’t make it past five years and 75% don’t make it past 10 years, Mary Nicholas feels pretty good about HQAA.

The accrediting agency celebrates its 10th year in business this year and will unveil a new look at The Heartland Conference in June.

“We’re the same solid, customer-oriented, compatible accreditor that we’ve always been,” said Nicholas, president and CEO. “We’re just trying to keep people engaged by staying fresh.”

As part of the refresh, HQAA is changing everything from its logo to its branding to its website. The company will also have a new tagline: “Keep accreditation in check.”

Accomplishments at a glance

In 10 years, HQAA has gone from providing accreditation standards for HME to infusion/home infusion compounding, pharmacy, medical practice, facility-based vents and third-party billing. Most recently, it started a new division, Quality Compounding Certification Program.

“We’ve maintained our foundation, but we’ve grown,” Nicholas said.

Surveyor drift

Accreditation, despite being a requirement for Medicare since 1999, is a process that’s far from old hat, Nicholas says.

“Insurance groups, HMOs—they’re all getting on the bandwagon requiring accreditation,” she said. “So there’s still meat on the bone.”

But Nicholas says she worries about “surveyor drift.”

“There has been some variation in what’s required, enough that the entire industry is wondering about the validity of accreditation at all,” she said. “We’re staying tightly wrapped around our standards.”

http://www.hmenews.com/article/hqaa-stays-fresh